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PARENTS  AND 
THEIR  PROBLEMS; 

CHILD    WELFARE    - 
IN 
HOME,     SCHOOL,     CHURCH    AND     STATE. 


EDITED    BY 

MARY  HARMON  WEEKS. 

Read  and  approved  by  Mrs.  Frederic  Schoff,  President,  National 

Congress  of   Mothers  ;  Mrs.  Joseph    P.    Mumford,  Hon. 

Vice  -  President,     National     Congress    of     Mothers ; 

Dr.  J.  George   Becht,  A.^I.,    Sc.D.,    Executive 

Secretary,  Penn.  State  Board  of  Education; 

Mrs.     E.     R.    Weeks,     Vice-President, 

National   Congress   of    ]Mothers   and 

Chairman,  Publication  Committee. 


Published  by 

THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS   OF   MOTHERS 
AND  PARENT-TEACHER  ASSOCIATIONS 

WASHINGTON,  D.C. 


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AND     PARENT-TEACHER     ASSOCIATIONS 


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APPRECIATIONS 


i 


HE  thanks  of  the  Editor,  of  the  Publication 

Committee  and  of  the  National  Congress  of 

Mothers  are  given  to  all  writers,  publishers, 

organizations,  private  individuals  and  govern- 

j  ment  ofificials  who  have  so  generously  aided  the  compi- 

V  lation  of  these  books  by  gifts  of  material,  by  constant 

J  advice  and  by  an  understanding  of  the  spirit  in  which 

the  work  was  undertaken.     Prom  all  these  sources, 

r\  has  come  a  hearty  response  which  has  been  a  con- 

n  stant  encouragement  during  the  months  of  arduous 

labor. 


A    PARTIAL    LIST    OF    AUTHORS 

EEPEESENTED   IN 

PARENTS  AND   THEIR   PROBLEMS 


LYMAN  ABBOTT,  Editor  of  the  "Outlook." 

FELIX  ABLER,  Professor  of  Political  and  Social  Ethics,  Columbia 
University,  N.  Y. 

EDWARD  E.  ALLEN,  Supt.  Perkixs'  Institute  and  Massachu- 
setts School  for  the  Blind. 

MRS.  THEODORE  BIRNEY,  First  President  of  the  National 
Congress    of    Mothers. 

CAROLINE  SHERWIN  BAILEY,  Lecturer  on  Story-telling  for  the 
N.  Y.  School  of  Philanthropt  and  N.  Y.  Parks  and  Plat- 
grounds  Association. 

J.  GEORGE  BECHT,  Executive  Secretary,  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, Harrisburg.  Pa, 

FREDRIC  G.  BONSER,  Asst.  Professor  in  Industrial  Education, 
Teachers'  College,  Columbia  University,  N.  Y. 

LLEWELLYN  F.  BARKER,  Prof,  of  Medicine,  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  and  Chief  Physician  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital. 

WM.  H.  BURNHAM,  Prof.  Child  Hygiene  and  Education,  Clark 
University,  Worcester,  Mass. 

THOS.  H.  BALLIETT,  Prof.  Science  of  Education  and  Dean  of 
School  of  Pedagogy,   University  of  New  York. 

NORMAN  COLEMAN,  Whitman  College,  Walla  Walla,  W'ash. 

HENRY  F.  COPE,  General  Secretary,  Religious  Education  Associa- 
tion. 

EMYLIN  LINCOLN  COOLIDGE,  Visiting  Physician,  Babies' 
Hospital,  N.  Y. 

PHILANDER  P.  CLAXTON.  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation. 

FLOY  CAMPBELL,  Head  of  Department  of  Art  Instruction  for 
Porto  Rico. 

6USAN  F.  CHASE,  Dept.  of  Psychology,  Buffalo  State  Normal 
School,  N.  Y. 

CHARLES  B.  DAVENPORT,  Director  Stu.  for  Experimental  Evolu- 
tion   (Carnegie   Institute)    Cold   Springs  Harbor,   N.   Y. 

EUGENE  DAVENPORT,  Director  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 
and   Professor  of  Thermatology,   University  of  Illinois. 

GEORGE  K.  DODSON,  Vice-president  of  the  American  Federation 
for   Sex   Hygiene. 

HANNAH  A.  DAVIDSON,  Former  Lecturer  on  Literary  Art  in 
Fiction  at  Wellesley  and  Mt.  Holyoke  Colleges. 

ELLA  V.  DOBBS,  Instructor  in  Manual  Arts,  Missouri  State 
Uni\t:rsity. 

LIDA  B.  EARHART,  Instructor  in  Elementary  Education,  Teach- 
ers' College,  Columbia  University. 

EDWARD  T.  FAIRCHILD,  President  National  Education  Associa- 
tion. 

MARY  H.  FEE,  Director  U.  S.  Division  of  Correspondence  for 
■  Filipino  Teachers,   Manila. 

JOHN  P.   FREY,  Editor  "Moulders'   Journal." 

FLORENCE  HARTLEY  GREENE,  Chairman  Dept.  of  Home 
Economics,   Missouri   State  Federation  of  Women's   Clubs. 

JAMES  M.  GREENWOOD,  Formerly  Supt.  of  Schools,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

FRANK  PIERREPONT  GRAVES,  Prof,  of  History  and  Philosophy 
of  Education,  State  University  of  Ohio. 


6  CONTRIBUTORS 

CAROLINE   L.   HUNT,   Author   of   "Home   Problems  from   a   New 

Standpoint." 
WILLIAM  HARD,  on  the  stafC  of  "Everybody's"  and  the  "Delinea- 
tor." 
G.  STANLEY  HALL,  Pres.  and  Prof,  of  Psychology,  Claek  Uni- 
versity^ Worcester,  Mass. 
ELIZABETH  HARRISON,  Pres.  National  Kindergarten  College. 
RICHARD  MORSE  HODGE,  Lecturer  in  English  and  Biblical  Lit. 

and  Extension  Teaching,  Columbia  University^  N.  Y. 
MARIE  HOFER,  Well-known  Lecturer  on  Kindergarten  Music,  and 

Composer  of  Songs   and  Games  for  Children. 
DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  President  Emeritus  of  Leland  Stanford 

University. 
CARL  KELSEY,  Prof.  Sociology,  University  of  Pa. 

IRVING  KING,  Prof,  of  Education,  University  of  Iowa. 

EDWIN  A.   KIRKPATRICK,  Head  of  Psychology  and  Child  Study 

Department  in  Fitchburg,  Mass.,   State  Normal  School. 
JOSEPH    LEE,    Pres.    Playground    and    Recreation    Association    of 

A  TTipri  ofi 
BEN  B.  LINDSEY,  Judge  of  Denver  Juvenile  Court. 

CHARLOTTE  BLATCHLEY  McCALL,  Former  District  Supervisor 

of  Physical  Culture,  Mass. 
J.    H.    McCURDY,    Lecturer   on    Physiology   of   Exercise,    Harvard 

Summer   SchooLj  Editor  "Physical   Education  Review." 
SHAILER   MATHEWS,    Dean    of    Divinity    School,    University  of 

Chicago. 
WM.    McKEEVER,    Prof,    of    Child   Welfare,    The    University    of 

Kansas,  Lawrence,  Kan. 
FRANCES    JENKINS    OLCOTT,    for    many    years    Head    of    the 

Children's  Dept.   Carnegie  Library^  Pittsburg. 
M.   V.   O'SHEA,   Prof,   of   the   Science  of  Education,   Unhtersity  of 

Wisconsin. 
DAVID  PHILIPSON,  Rabbi,  B'nai  Israel  Congregation,  Cincinnati. 
ANNA   MAY    PALMER,  New   York    City    Normal   College. 

E.   E.   PORTERFIELD,  Judge  of  Juvenile  Court,   Kansas  City,  Mo. 
HELEN  C.  PUTNAM,  Member  Executive  Committee  American  Asso- 
ciation for  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality. 
CAROLINE  L.  PRATT,  Inventor  of  Do-With  Toys. 
STUART  H.  ROWE,  Author  of  "Habit  Formation." 
FLORA  ROSE,  Dept.  of  Household  Economics  State  Agricultural 

College,  Cornell  University. 
THEODORE   ROOSEVELT. 
LYMAN  BEECHER  STOWE,  Sec.   National  Associations  of  Junior 

Republics. 
CHARLES  W.  SALBEBY,  Edinburgh,  Author  of  "Parenthood  and 

Race  Culture."  ^ 

E.   HERSHEY    SNEATHE,   Prof,   of   Philosophy   of   Religion,   Yale 

University. 
WALTER  SPALDING,      Asst.  Prof,  of  Music,  Harvard  Unfversity. 
KATHERINE    STILLWELL,    School    of   Education,    University    of 

Chicago.  „ 

DUDLEY    ALLEN    SARGENT,    Director    Hemenway    Gymnasium, 

Harvard  University.  ,  ^^  ^^ 

HANNAH   K.    SCHOFF,  Pres.   National   Concress  of  Mothers. 

EFFIE  SEACHREST.  Teacher  and  Lecturer  on  Art. 

GRAHAM  TAYLOR,  Head  of  Chicago  Commons;  Associate  Editor 

"The  Survey."  „       ,  _ 

RICHARD  THOS.  WT^CHE,        Pres.  National  Story-tellers   League. 
FLORENCE     E.     WARD,     Supervisor    of     Kindergarten    Training, 

lowA  State  Teachers'  College. 
LEO  WIENER,  Prof.  Slavic  Languages,  Harvard  University. 

LUCY  WHEELOCK,  Pres.  Boston  Kindergarten  Normal  School. 
WOODROW  WILSON,  President  of  the  United  States. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 
Volume  I 
Analyzed   for  Programme   Use 

PREFACE    17 

A  PLEA  FOR  THE  CHILDREN,  Mrs.  Theodore  W. 

Biraey     19 

QUOTATIONS    25 

Chapter  I 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOME,  Mrs.  Henry  J.  Hersey  27 
Dignity  of  small  things— Method  not  principle- 
Basis  of  happiness  the  ideal  home— The  good  of 
one  in  the  home  the  good  of  all— Common  point  of 
view  of  home  necessary  to  all  members — Co-operation 
necessary  to  ideal  home— Courtesy  necessary  to  ideal 
home. 

Chapter  II 

HOME-MAKING  VERSUS  HOUSEKEEPING,  Caro- 
line   L.    Hmit , 32 

Division  of  duties  between  husband  and  wife— Grad- 
ual division  of  man's  home  duties — Earliest  home 
activities  of  woman— Failure  of  home  life  to  adjust 
to  modern  conditions — Definition  of  home — Interfer- 
ence of  housewife  duties  with  home-makei''s  duties — 
Homekeeping  not  an  end. 

Chapter  III 

THE  ART  OF  HOME-MAKING,  Mbna  A.  Stoner. . .  39 
Home-making  a  business  requiring  a  new  sort  of 
training— Ideal  of  education— Purpose  of  home  eco- 
nomics courses — What  home  economics  stand  for — 
Domestic  economy  defined— Euthenics  defined— Rank 
of   home   economics   in   schools. 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

Chapter  IV 

Page 
WHAT   THE   DEPARTMENT   OF  AGRICULTURE 

IS  DOING  FOR  THE  HOME,  John  Hamilton. . .  45 

Government  fosters  homes — National  government  and 
ideal  homes — National  Department  of  Agriculture — 
Government's  home  bulletins— Department  of  Agri- 
culture and  University  helps — Home-keeping  not 
drudgeiy— The  State  and  home  life— Government's 
future  work  for  home. 

Chapter  V 

EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN   FOR    THE    PROFES- 
SION OF  LIFE,  Sarah  Piatt  Decker 55 

Trades  and  professions  open  to  women — Wl:y  girls 
are  sent  to  college — Dissatisfaction  with  colleges  for 
girls- The  profession  of  life— Ideal  result  of  college 
life  for  girls. 

Chapter  VI 

THE  SCHOOL  BEGINS  TO  PREPARE  FOR  THE 

HOME,  William  Hard 60 

New  ingredient  in  educational  dough — The  new 
mathematics — A  definition  of  school — Chemistry  and 
living — Expression  following  impression  —  Science  is-- 
sues  into  li\-ing  through  cooking— Life  purposes  and 
school  interest — Contrast  between  professional  and 
technical  schools— English  composition  and  life  pur- 
poses—  The  philosophy  of  education  —  Reason  for 
segregation  in  Cleveland  school — Kind  of  teachers 
needed  in  Tech.  school — Spread  of  training  for  life — 
High  schools  training  for  life — Age  of  definition  of 
life  purposes— Real  culture  a  by-product  — Girl's 
High  School  of  Practical  Arts. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FAMILY  LIFE 74 

QUOTATIONS    77 

Chapter  VII 

DO     WE     NEED     EDUCATION     FOR     PARENT- 
HOOD ?   Maiy  Harmon  Weeks 81 

Social  problems  lead  always  to  children— Mother 
or    institution— To    begin    with    children    means    to 


'-O' 


CONTENTS  9 

Page 

begin  with  grownups — Need  of  direct  training  for 
parenthood — Living  for  children  a  new  thought — 
Laws  for  parenthood — Creating  right  parenthood — 
State's  duty  to  right  parenthood. 

Chapter  VIII 

PARENTHOOD    AND    RACE    CULTURE,    Charles 

W.  Saleeby,  F.  R.  S.  E 86 

Man  need  not  take  the  world  as  he  finds  it — Human 
life  increasingly  dominant— Continuity  of  life — 
Parenthood  the  life  link — Meaning  of  motherhood — 
Protection  of  race  through  mothei's. 

Chapter  IX 

THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS,  G.  Stanley  Hall. ...     93 
Definition  of  eugenics — Teaching  sex — By  whom — 
How — Age— Sex    hygiene    and    regimen — Eugenics 
as  a  new  creed. 

Chapter  X 

INFLUENCE  OF  HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRON- 
MENT UPON  RACE  IMPROVEMENT,  Carl 
Kelsey    103 

Sociology's  suggestion  to  biology — Relative  impor- 
tance of  heredity  and  environment — "Inherited," 
"congenital"  and  "acquired"  defined— Grounds  for 
marriage — Considerations  of  race — Maintaming 
sound  physical  stock— Controlled  environment- 
Duty  of  schools — Mal-adjustment  and  race  de- 
terioration— American  problems  chiefly  of  environ- 
ment. 

Chapter  XI 

INFLUENCE  OF  HEREDITY  ON  HUMAN  SO- 
CIETY, Charles  B.  Davenport Ill 

Changing  basis  as  to  man's  individual  responsibil- 
ity—  Degenerative  forces  at  work — Percentage  of 
development  of  family  traits— Lesson  of  Mendelian 
studies— Inheritance  of  positive  character  for 
good— Inheritance  in  noted  families— Our  most 
valuable  national  resource — Protection  against  im- 
becility—Mating. 


10  CONTENTS 

czijTT.?.  xn 

THE  Dii^  '~T  ?:~C'::^::xa  fa:-i:ly  iza::-. 

Cta::r^   3     :.:   -port   120 

CEiTTna   Xm 

THE    STUDY   OF   GE^TA         Y    ANP    FA^^IILY 

TRAITS,  diAries  F  - 122 

ir  amiiy  traits — Tbe  stuu v  ci  ^tiieain:«gy. 

Chaphk  XIV 

Er:':'AT:;'>:  ?:«?:  ?A?:ivrHOor.  H^f-  c.  f—- 


CHi---?.  XV 
PRACTICAL  A7  7:.:CATIOX^  ;?  ct::!!'  stvdy, 

r_^  i-v     -.-;-     140 

ECOMOMIC  WORTH  OE      HILI    ^7    DY,  O.  H. 

Bakdess    146 

Definition  of  duld  study — Knowledge  of  the  physi- 
cal diild  a  eadb  a^et — Knowledge  of  the  child's 
moBtal  eiMDstitation  a  ca^  asset — A  knowledge  of 
the  diild's  moial  natme  and  development  a  ca^ 


Chj.?'—^.  xvn 

SYMPATHETIC    PAFI^THOOD,    Mis.    Tlieodoie 

Bizney    155 

Objeetiv«  sofEenng  jren — Sobjeetive  soffer- 

ing  of  difldren — Kee  log  for  parenthood — 

For  ^diat  the  Comi:  -  :  V.-^'^sxs  worts— Sym- 
pathy without  aeti . :.  —  A  .  . . :  s  basinet  and  a 
man'sL 


COKIENTS  11 

Chaptte  XVIII 

Page 
GENERAL  IXFORiLlTION  FOR  PARENTS,  John 

L--^-^     ■.•■•■■ .: ■ l'>t 

T;  "  -  — K  :  eating 

-  —'V   rToral 
.        ■-.;-  —  -  -_  -         .:s  — Praise 

and    commendatir.— i;         :  ;:,;      and   eom- 

mendation— Consider i.:..  a:.i  rt^pect  ior  diildraj- 

Ceapt£?.  XIX 
WHAT  COXSTITrTE.S  A  GOOD  FATHER.   J.L- 

r         -.                                                                                                     -  ,„, 
l-^O 

^  ri     "    ::ison   lyO 

tompaniondiip  between  father  and 
son — Fa::  ";   advise  as  a   friend — Friendty 

discourse  .i/i   i\i:       3-^  pupil— Mutual  obligations 
of  fathers  and  r:  ~— CharaeteristicB  of  a  good 

father — Strenuous    business  an   obstacle — Mother's 
need — Bread^^rnnirg'  not  the  whole  duty. 

Chapter  XX 

WHAT  COXSTITrTES  A  GOOD  :.p''THER,  ^r^rr 

H.  Weeks   195 

Motherhood  a  eommon   :      :  — T:   -   : .      .  r   Pve  — 
The  intelligent  mother — Tz^   patient  mc::rr  — 7i^ 
good  mother  self-respecvr— Mother  fail   -    —T 
good  mother  creates  trut   :   !:  rss,  honesty 
mindedness — Methods  of  teaching  untruthi\:^::esi  — 
Honesty  taught  by  example. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  PARENTHOOD  202 

QUOTATIONS    207 

ChaP'TI?.  XXI 
THE  HOME  ATMOSPHERE.  Mrs.  Da-Id  0.  Mears..  209 

Ch  A  PTE2   XXH 

THE  HIGHEST  AilBlTION,  Delc^  F.  Wilcox 213 


12  CONTENTS 

Chapter  XXIII 

Page 
THE    RIGHT    OF    THE    CHILD    TO    BE    WELL 

BORN,  George  E.  Dawson   215 

Scientific  and  philanthropic  interest  of  the  day — 
Declining  parenthood— Regenerated  biological  he- 
redity—Recognition of  children's  rights— New 
ideals  for  parenthood— Education  for  parent- 
hood—Moral fitness— Parental  adaptation. 

Chapter  XXIV 

FITNESS  FOR  IVIARRIAGE,  Mary  H.  Weeks 227 

Health  necessaiy  to  the  social  unit — Requirements 
from  man  and  woman  imequal  and  not  sufficient — 
The  husband's  qualities — Requirements  of  health — 
Parenthood  should  supply  a  good  home — The  true 
ambition   for  parenthood— Perfect  health. 

Chapter  XXV 

THE    WRONG    KIND    OF    VOCATION    FOR    A 

FATHER,  W^illiam  Byron   Forbush 233 

Vocations  detrimental  to  children  — Compensations 
of  good  vocations — Vocations  in  relation  to  their 
environment— Separation  of  father  and  children. 

Chapter  XXVI 

WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE?  David  Graham 

Phillips 238 

The  plain  truth  — Successful  wife  as  a  human 
being — French  idea  —  Danger  in  monotony — Intelli- 
gence versus  intellect— Make  yourself  good  enough 
for  him— The  remedy. 

Chapter  XXVII 
MODEL  HUSBANDS    248 

Chapter  XXVIII 

THE     CHRISTIAN     IDEALS     OF     MARRIAGE, 

Lyman  Abbott 250 

Divorce  in  the  United  States— Object  of  the  family 
not  happiness— Individualism  and  divorce. 


CONTENTS  13 

Chapter  XXIX 

Page 
THE     HOUSE     AS     A     HOME,     Charles     Francis 

Osborne     254 

Difference  between  them— The  home  and  family 
life— Ownership  versus  rent— Building  associa- 
tion—House to  fit  the  family— Rich  man's 
troubles— Careful  buying— Individuality— Conven- 
ience not  size. 

Chapter  XXX 

WHERE     SHALL     THE     HOUSE     BE?     Charles 

Francis  Osbonie   264 

Site — Distance  from  work — Transportation  prob- 
lem—Neighborhood—Noise and  smoke— What  sort 
of  a  street— Lot — Town  or  countiy — Moral  advan- 
tages. 

Chapter  XXXI 

WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE?  Maiy  Hannon  Weeks.  275 
Air  and  school  work— Air  and  blood — Throat  and 
nasal  troubles  and  unclean  air— Cold  air  box— Foul 
air  vent  and  playgrounds— Fear  of  drafts— How  to 
get  the  bad  air  out— Fresh  air  must  come  easily. 

Chapter  XXXII 
THE  RESTFUL  HOME,  Mrs.  A.  W.  Merrill 285 

Chapter  XXXIII 

THE  HOUSE  MONEY,  Mary  H.  Weeks 288 

Household  allowances— Knowledge  of  business 
methods  essential  to  wise  expenditure— Household 
accounts,  their  value  in  housekeeping  and  to  the 
public— Promise  of  better  results. 

Chapter  XXXIV 

MAKING     HOME     ATTRACTIVE     TO     YOUNG 

PEOPLE,  Mrs.  F.  W.  Wyman 293 

Routine  work  and  the  gi'eat  problem— What  home 
must  do  for  the  child— Home  attractive  to  children 
and  their  friends— Unattractive  parents  and 
homes— Sympathy  with  young  life— Daughter's 
room — Boy's  room. 

Vol.   1—2 


14  CONTENTS 

Page 
ENCOURAGING  A  LOVE  OF  HOME,  Hannah  K. 

Schoff    298 

WHY  CHILDREN  GO   OUT  ON  THE   STREETS, 

Louise  DeKoven  Bowen   300 

HOUSES  SHOULD  BE  MADE  FOR  CHILDREN 
AS  WELL  AS  FOR  GROWNUPS,  Caroline 
Bartlett  Crane  301 

Chapter  XXXV 

HOW  THE  FARMER'S  WIFE  MAY  LIVE  A  FULL 

LIFE,  Harriet  M.  Shepai-d  303 

Chapter  XXXVI 

LIFE'S  LARGE  RELATIONSHIP,  Graham  Taylor.   306 
The   best    way   to    fulfill    our   social    obligations — 
Function    of    family    relationship — Neighborship — 
Industrial     relationship— Citizenship— Relationship 
of  religion. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FOUNDING  THE  HOME ...  309 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 
Volume  I 

PAGE 

NoRiiAKDY  Coast  (Color  Plate) 

By  George  Innes   Frontispiece 

Reproduced   by    courtesy    of    The   Art   Institute   of 
Chicago. 

Expectation By  Joseph  Israels    28 

Reproduced   by   courtesy   of   the   Metropolitan   Mu- 
seum of  Art,  New  York. 

The  Sheepfold By  Charles  Emile  Jaeque     60 

Reproduced   by   courtesy   of   the   Metropolitan   Mu- 
seum of  Art,  New  York. 

Cat  and  Kittens By  Louis  Eugene  Lambert     92 

Reproduced  bj^  courtesy  of  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art,  New  York. 

Spring By  Pierre  Etienne  Theodore  Rousseau  124 

Reproduced   by   courtesy    of   The  Art   Institute  of 
Chicago. 

A  Wedding  Procession  in  the  Bavarian  Tyrol. 

By  William  Riefstahl 188 

Reproduced   by   courtesy   of  the   Metropolitan   Mu- 
seum of  Art,  New  York. 

Return  from  the  Christening.  .  •  .By  Gustave  Brion  220 

Reproduced   by   courtesy   of   the   Metropolitan   Mu- 
seum of  Art,  New  York. 

The  Home  of  Our  Ancestors 252 

From  a  photograph. 
The  Boy  With  a  Sword By  Edouard  Manet  284 

Reproduced   by   courtesy    of   the   Metropolitan   Mu- 
seum of  Art,  New  York. 


PREFACE 

HESE  books  are  offered  the  public  as  helps 
along  the  road  to  child  welfare  in  home, 
school,  church  and  state.  They  are  intended 
primarily  for  parents.  The  close  scientific  stu- 
dent will  find  his  field  in  the  laboratory  and  the  com- 
plete records  of  child  study.  For  these,  the  average  man 
and  woman  have  neither  time  nor  training.  Yet  the 
problem  of  child  rearing  is  with  them,  and  they  ask 
for  aid  in  its  solution.  To  bring  to  them  the  best 
thought  in  brief  and  thus  rouse  them  to  forceful  ef- 
fort in  the  solution  of  their  own  problems-  is  the  pur- 
pose of  these  volumes. 

Each  article  has  been  read  by  the  Publication 
Committee  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  and 
approved  as  useful  in  its  special  line.  Most  of  the 
articles  are  short  enough  to  be  used  as  bases  for  dis- 
cussions in  parents'  meetings,  and  those  who  desire 
further  presentations  of  the  topics  are  directed  to  the 
recognized  sources  of  information  listed  at  the  end 
of  the  sections. 

Every  class  of  thinkers  has  contributed  to  this 
collection  of  papers.  The  scientific  expert,  the  teach- 
er, the  physician,  the  father  and  mother  in  the  midst 
of  the  struggle,  the  trained  kindergartner,  the  plain 
business  man  with  an  eye  to  his  own  needs,  the 
trained  nurse  and  the  social  enthusiast,  the  dreamer 
and  the  every-day  worker — all  have  presented  their 
messages  in  their  ovm  way. 

The  contributions  of  the  editor  herself  make  no 
claims  to  originality.     Through  many  years  of  con- 

17 


18  PREFACE 

tact  with  those  seeking  help  and  with  those  who  have 
a  message,  a  thousand  and  one  suggestions  have  come 
to  her  from  sources  no  longer  recognizable.  She  gives 
them  forth  again,  glad  to  transmit  the  word  to  those 
whose  need  it  serves,  and  confident  that  in  transmit- 
ting it,  she  renders  kind  service  to  both  givers  and 
receivers.  The  world  divides  itself  into  artists, 
teachers,  taught.  "We  cannot  all  be  artists,  but  it  is 
an  inspiring  thought  that  we  may  each  translate  some 
part  of  the  great  master's  word,  and  thus  "pass  the 
torch  of  life  from  lifted  hand  to  hand  along  the  gen- 
erations. ' ' 

To  all  the  unthinking,  all  the  troubled,  all  the 
puzzled  fathers  and  mothers,  to  all  the  workers  for 
child  welfare,  these  books  are  offered.  If  they  trans- 
mute thought  into  action,  and  thus  make  child  life 
happier,  saner  and  more  effective  for  right  thinking, 
creative  activity,  and  true  living,  they  will  have  ac- 
complished their  purpose. 


A  PLEA  FOR  THE  CHILDREN 

MRS.  THEODORE  W.  BIRNEY 
First  President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers 

(  ^^^TjS  soon  as  adults  cast  aside  their  indiflference 
Ntl^fiiliik    and  enter  more  fully  into  the  study,  life  and 
needs  of  infancy  and  childhood,  just  so  soon 
will  the  regeneration  of  the  race  be  effected. 
Ah,  the  misery  entailed  upon  helplessness  through  ig- 
«norance !  If  all  the  unnecessary  heartaches  and  cruel 
'sense  of  injustice  which  little  children  suffer  could  be 
'expressed  in  a  single  sob,  the  earth  would  tremble  with 
its  force  and  our  hearts  stand  still  in  awe  of  our  hid- 
^eous  selfishness.     That  perhaps  sounds  harsh,  but  is 
,  the  world  not  selfish  where  children  are  concerned  ? 
,  They  should  be  the  first_consi deration  of  both  parents 
and  state.    Are  they?    Look  into  your  own  life  first, 
and  then  that  of  your  neighbor,  and  answer.    If  you 
are  a  man,  nine  chances  out  of  ten  you  are  so  ab- 
sorbed in  business  cares  that  you  have  little  or  no 
time  for  your  children.    You  work  to  surround  them 
with   material   comforts   while   you   deny   them   the 
priceless  boon  of  your  sympathy  and  companionship. 
No  amount  of  gold  can  ever  atone  to  them  for  this 
loss,   and  the  probabilities  are  that  the  wealth  you 
accumulate  will  prove   a   stumbling   block   in   their 
pathway.     If  you  are   a  woman — but  why  go  into 
these  details,  these  trite  old  stories. 

Mother  love  and  devotion  do  not  always  stand  for 
unselfishness.  It  is  not  so  hard  for  a  mother  to  make 
a  grreo^ sacrifice ;  it  is  sometimes  hard  for  her  to  real- 
ize thatjsvhat  she  regards  as  saintly  unselfishness  in 

19 


/    ( 


20  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  CHILDREN 

herself  is  really  a  subtle,  disastrous  form  of  selfish- 
ness which  will  not  fail  to  dwarf  the  development  of 
her  children.  There  should  be  no  patent  on  unsel- 
fishness in  any  family ;  each  member  should  bear  his 
or  her  part  of  the  family  burdens.  We  are  all  agreed 
in  this,  and  yet  do  we  live  up  to  our  conviction  in  the 
matter?  Our  obligati^njs  that  dual  one  which  exists 
in  every  relation  of  life,  a  duty  not  only  to  ourselves 
but  an  equallyTmportant  one  to  those  less  privileged. 
And  so  it  behooves  us  to  act,  to  speak,  to  feel  in  such 
perfect  harmony  of  purpose  that  the  listening  world 

f'may  hear  such  strains  of  aspiration  as  of  themselves 
will  lift  humanity  nearer  the  realm  of  the  ideal. 

The   methods   of   accomplishing  the  purpose   for 

which  we  are  striving  may  be  diverse ;  in  our  zeal  we 

may  commit  errors  in  judgment,  but  if  our  hearts  are 

true  and  steadfast  we  shall  stand  together,  united  by 

.  a  common  cause,  the  love  of  childhood.     It  seems  to 

I  me  that  all  should  perceive  what  intelligent  parent- 

I  hood  means  for  the  race,  and  that  to  attain  it  is  as 

/  well  worth  our  effort  and  attention  as  the  study  of 

Greek,  Latin,  higher  mathematics,  medicine,  law,  or 

any  other  profession. 

I  This  National  Congress  of  Mothers  is  unquestion- 
ably a  popular  movement ;  the  thoughtful  welcome  it 
and  recognize  in  it  unlimited  power  for  good,  and  yet 
it  has  its  critics.  And  to  these  critics,  I  say  a  few 
words,  not  in  antagonism,  but  in  the  hope  of  awaken- 
ing them  to  the  importance  of  this  movement.  Their 
first  objection  is  that  to  attend  a  Mother's  Congress 
or  a  Mothers'  Club,  a  woman  must  neglect  her  chil- 
dren and  her  home,  but  they  neither  condemn  nor 
criticise  the  woman  who  goes  regularly  to  market  to 
supply  the  physical  needs  of  her  children,  who  often 
spends  many  hours  weekly  shopping  for  their  cloth- 


A  PLEA  FOR  THE  CHILDREN  21 

ing  or  her  own,  who  cheerfully  devotes  an  entire 
jaorning  to  a  search  through  the  shops  for  some  par- 
ticular color  or  design  in  material  or  trimming,  when 
another  might  have  served  her  purpose  equally  well 
and  saved  much  valuable  time,  who  gives  hours  to 
her  machine  and  sewing,  and  by  doing  this  work  her- 
self is  enabled,  as  she  explains,  to  have  finer  trim- 
mings and  materials  than  she  could  afford  if  she  put 
her  sewing  out.  Such  is  our  truly  domestic  critic. 
The  chances  are  that  she  belongs  to  a  progressive 
euchre  club  which  meets  weekly,  and  that  she  makes 
frequent  neighborhood  calls;  that  she  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  gossip  about  the  affairs  of  others  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  children,  and  that  she  and  her  husband 
argue  before  them  the  question  as  to  how  they  should 
\  be  disciplined ;  it  is  not  unusual  for  parents  to  differ 
I  on  this  point,  and  for  children  to  witness  such  a  lack 
of  self-control  in  those  they  should  respect  above  all 
others,  as  dwarfs  their  ideals  as  surely  as  a  black 
1  frost  blights  a  fruit  tree  when  in  blossom.  They  see 
|no  objection  to  "showing  off"  their  children  on  all 
occasions,  to  attracting  attention  to  them  by  unwisely 

tepeating  A^thin  their  hearing  the  bright  and  cun- 
ing  things  they  have  said.     These  are  a  few  of  the 
things  which  are  done  by  all  classes  of  our  critics, 
jfrom  the  woman  who  poses  as  a  "domestic  mother," 
/to  some  of  the  women  of  fashion    who  see  little  of 
their  children  and  know  less.     Then,  there  is  the  in- 
consistent woman  who  belongs  to  a  dozen  clubs  for 
Ibetterment  of  the  human  race,  but  who  "really  hasn't 
/time  for  a  mothers'  club."  Should  we  not  pity  rather 
than  condemn  the  shortsightedness  of  such   critics, 
who  feel  that  they  know  quite  enough  to  bring  up 
their  children  without  any  outside  aid? 

Let  us  eliminate  from  childhood  the  swords  and 


22  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  CHILDREN 

guns  and  caps,  the  toy  cannon  and  other  destructive 
emblems  of  strife,  let  us  educate  our  children  away 
from  false  and  demoralizing  ideas  of  valor,  and 
through  such  education  may  we  not  hope  that  the 
time  will  come  when  war,  with  its  attendant  horrors, 
"will  be  replaced  by  a  stern  and  united  determination 
on  the  part  of  the  nations  in  behalf  of  peace — when 
no  civilized  people  will  glory  in  the  sacrifice  of  hu- 
man life,  but  when  all  humanity  will  know  that  it  is 
better  served  by  that  arbitration  which  makes  for 
universal  peace?  Let  us  teach  our  children  that  if 
there  be  an  unpardonable  sin  it  is  the  misuse  of 
power,  intellectual,  political  or  social;  that  the  high- 
est development  of  any  faculty  is  obtained  only 
through  use,  and  that  life  means  service,  glad,  joy- 
ous service,  for  mankind  and  the  world.  All  nature 
sets  us  this  beautiful  example  of  service.  The  sun  rises 
and  the  darkness  falls,  the  seasons  come  and  go,  the 
earth  yields  up  her  fruits,  all  for  the  benefit  of  man ; 
no  tree  absorbs  its  own  fruits,  no  flowers  bloom  for 
themselves  alone.  If  we  did  but  keep  close  to  the 
heart  of  nature,  we  should  learn  much  to  which  our 
eyes  are  now  blinded  through  too  long  study  of 
graven  image  of  wood  and  stone  and  printed  page.  ^ 


EDUCATION  FOR  FAMILY  LIFE 


QUOTATIONS 

"Home,  a  place  for  rest,  for  cheer,  for  warmth,  for  com- 
fort, for  forbearance,  a  place  for  peace,  repose,  a  place 
where  the  soul  may  extend  toward  a  nobler,  better  Ife." 

"Home-making  may  be  classed  among  the  tine  arts,  for 
it  gives  mental  and  moral  atmosphere  to  the  'joy  of  the 
home'  as  Ruskin  happily  expresses  it.  The  art  of  being 
lovely  at  home  is  well  worth  cultivating.  The  true  home- 
maker  will  give  co-operation  and  sympathy  to  her  hus- 
band in  his  life  work,  and  train  her  children  for  a  noble, 
useful  career— to  be  a  blessing  to  the  world.  She  will 
consider  it  her  privilege  and  sacred  duty,  as  wife  and 
mother,  to  make  her  home  a  radiating  center  of  goodness 
and  happiness;  a  place  of  peace;  'a  world  of  strife  shut 
out;  a  world  of  love  shut  in'— a  place  of  joy,  of  inspira- 
tion, of  growth  in  all  that  is  highest  and  best,  and  a  place 
to  which  the  heart  gladly  turns  in  the  turmoils  of  life." 

"Home  is  the  nearest  earth  pomt  from  which  one  may 
step  into  heaven,  and  if  the  earthly  home  has  been  a  type 
of  the  heavenly,  the  transition  will  be  easy  and  sweet  into 
the  realms  of  the  hleesed."— Unknown. 

"The  home  has  got  to  be  founded  inside  the  imperfect 
thing  we  call  society,  and  these  two,  nature  and  society, 
are  continually  getting  into  each  other's  way,  wrecking  each 
other's  plans,  frustrating  each  other's  schemes.  The  woman 
almost  never  is  able  to  adjust  her  life  so  as  to  fully  satisfy 
both."— Ida  M.  Tarhell. 

"Women's  place  is  in  the  home,  where  they  can  be  the 
housewives  and  the  mothers.  In  the  home  they  will  have 
all  the  influence  which  they  need  through  that  influence 
which  a  good  wife  will  have  over  a  husband. 

"I  would  advise  young  women  to  pay  particular  atten- 
tion in  after  life  to  the  lessons  of  courtesy,  the  acts  of 
kindness  and  of  self  denial.  These  appear  as  trifles,  but 
they  mean  in  the  end  perfection,  and  perfection  is  not  a 
trifle." — Cardinal   Gibbons. 

25 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOME 

MRS.  HENRY  J.  HERSEY 
Ex-President  of  the  Colorado  Congress  of  Mothers 

jN  speaking  to  an  organization  which  pledges  Dignity  of 
itself  first  of  all  to  "raise  the  standard  of  ^™*"  *  °*' 
home  life, ' '  it  may  be  unnecessary  to  suggest 
the  importance  and  dignity  of  what  we  call 
"small  things."  The  true  mother  learned  long  ago 
that  while  her  ' '  sphere  "  is  in  her  own  home,  she  must 
draw  from  the  whole  wide  world  the  helps  which  xsill 
enable  her  to  bring  that  home  up  to  its  highest  possi- 
bilities. No  doubt  the  feature  of  the  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers  which  attracts  the  interest  and  calls 
out  the  devotion  of  men  and  women  alike  is  its  prac- 
tical following  of  the  guidance  of  the  old  hymn : 

"WHEBE   SHALL  I   SOW   MY   SEED?" 

"At  thy  feet,"  the  angel  answered; 

"Sow  at  once  thy  nearest  field;  ' 

"First   the  dooryard ;  then  beyond  it ; 

"Let  new  fields  new  furrows  yield." 

"Fill  the  nearest  spot  with  gladness; 

"Fill  thy  home  with  goodness  sweet; 
"Wider  fields  shall  ask  thy  sowing, 

"If  thou  first  sow  at  thy  feet." 

No  one  can  live  another's  life,  nor  solve  another's 
problems;  the  Divine  purpose,  which  has  made  us 
individual,  forces  each  to  do  that  for  himself.  But 
the  mother  may  greatly  help ;  or  she  may  hinder. 

27 


28 


THE  SPIRIT  QF  THE  HOME 


Methods  are 
methods 
only — not 
principles 


Basis  of 
happiness,  the 
ideal    home 


As  we  look  back,  we  all  see  that  this  was  hard  to 
learn.  How  confident  we  were,  after  the  first  baby 
was  well  out  of  infancy,  that  we  had  learned  all  about 
it,  and  that  any  intelligent  woman  who  had  studied 
the  subject  could  make  theory  and  practice  harmonize. 
The  second  baby  brought  a  rude  awakening.  Every- 
thing that  had  worked  so  beautifully  before  failed  this 
time.  He  would  not  sleep  as  the  other  had  done,  he 
could  not  digest  the  same  food,  and  as  he  grew  older 
the  methods  of  correction  and  discipline  so  tried  and 
proved  were  found  useless.  So  we  learn,  really  learn, 
that  method  is  not  principle,  and  that  when  a  woman 
says,  ''I  always  do  'so  and  so,'  "  she  is  not  master 
of  her  subject.  And  yet  there  is  a  right  and  wrong, 
and  we  all  yearn  for  the  one  and  shrink  from  the 
other.  And  our  common  purpose  is  to  find  the  touch- 
stone which  will  discriminate  between  them.  This 
touchstone  may  well  be  called  "The  Spirit  of  the 
Home,"  and  the  three  sides  of  its  symbolic  triangle 
are  named  Unity,  Co-operation  and  Courtesy.  The 
home  is  more  than  house  and  parents  and  children. 

"Four  walls  do  not  a  home  create, 
Nor  wealth  and  station  peace." 

Listen  to  the  words  in  which  the  Church  recognizes 
the  establishment  of  the  New  Home  :  ' '  For  as  much 
as  these  two  have  consented  together,"  not  one  con- 
sented to  the  other,  but  the  two  consented  to  a  com- 
mon purpose.  Think  what  it  would  mean  if  in  the 
heart  of  every  man  and  woman  were  hidden  a  definite 
home  ideal !  A  conscious  purpose  toward  which  every 
thought,  word  and  deed  would  contribute.  Its  im- 
pulse would  send  every  faculty  in  search  of  material 
to  serve  its  purpose. 

The  day  comes  when  the  mother  sees  her  daughter, 
whose  every  hour  till  now  she  has  herself  carefully 


mtei^SSSS^iiS^ 


\..^ 


EXPECTATION 

After  the  Painting  by  Joseph   Israels. 
In   the   Metropolitan    Museum    of   Art,    New   York. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOME  29 

guarded,  go  forth  into  a  new  and  untried  experience — 
to  solve  her  own  problems,  and  bear  her  own  pain; 
her  happiness  wholly  dependent  upon  the  character 
of  the  man  with  whom  she  goes.  In  such  an  hour  one 
turns  for  assurance  not  to  wealth  or  position,  but  to 
the  presence  of  the  Ideal.  The  mother  knows  that 
the  basis  of  happiness  is  laid  not  in  material  things, 
but  in  the  Ideal,  and  if  she  is  assured  that  these  two 
dear  ones  have  this  lofty  conception  of  their  united 
life  her  ' '  Soul  puts  by  its  fears. "  It  is  plain  that  the 
supreme  gift  to  them  would  be  a  comprehension  of 
the  "Spirit  of  the  Home." 

I  The  ultimate  purpose  of  motherhood  is  the  repeti- 
tion of  motherhood,  with  the  inheritance  of  some 
measure  of  the  wisdom  which  was  the  outgrowth  of 
the  one  before  it.  And  it  is  this  legacy  of  wisdom 
which  laj's  emphasis  upon  the  vital  importance  of 
implanting  in  each  childish  heart  devotion  to  the 
home  ideal.  J 

It  is  an  impossibility  that  anything  should  be  a  The  good  of 
good  for  any  member  of  the  family,  which  is  not  a  good  of  au 
good  for  all.  When  John  indolently  knocks  cigar 
ashes  all  over  the  hearth,  with  an  ash  tray  mthin  easy 
reach  of  his  hand,  the  point  is,  not  that  Mary's  care- 
ful housekeeping  is  destroyed,  but  that  he  violates 
the  "spirit  of  the  home,"  and  substitutes  the  spirit 
of  the  tavern  or  club,  because  if  he  and  ]\Iary  had 
"consented  together"  in  the  matter,  either  he  would 
act  in  harmony  with  her  efforts  to  have  the  hearth 
clean,  or  Mary  would  agree  with  him  to  keep  the 
hearth  for  a  handy  place  to  drop  things. 

Experiences,  no  matter  how  trying,  are  only  the 
straws  which  show  how  the  wind  blows,  and,  as  ex- 
periences, we  should  not  lay  too  much  stress  upon 
them.     Freedom,  diversion,  pleasure,  are  good  to  the 

Vol.    1—3 


30 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOME 


; 


Common 
point  of 
view 
necessary 


Co-operation 
necessary 


^^-->^       // 


point  where  they  will  bear  the  touchstone !  Freedom 
for  one,  to  the  point  where  it  means  bondage  to  an- 
other, does  not  conform  to  the  "Spirit  of  the  Home," 
j  Diversion,  to  the  point  where  it  becomes  social  dis- 
'  sipation  in  the  mother,  or  equally,  business  dissipation 
in  the  father,  changes  its  character. 

Things  of  necessity  come  under  this  rule,  as  well 
as  those  of  privilege ! 

Oh!  if  we  could  all  realize  the  necessity  of  the 
common  "point  of  view,"  and  the  greatness  of  the 
reward  of  the  woman  who  seeks  this  first!  If  she 
seeks  it  intelligently  and  good  naturedly,  she  will 
surely  "overcome  evil  with  good."  A  common  life 
must  be  regulated  by  common  rules,  and  no  one  stands 
I  alone  in  the  home.  There  can  be  no  perfect  home  life 
'unless  all  love  and  serve  the  home  ideal.  They  who 
would  create  a  home  from  which  will  come  only  fine 
and  true  and  noble  things  must  create  it  in  spirit  and 
in  truth. 

The  second  side  of  our  triangle.  Co-operation,  is 
the  effort  and  sacrifice  which  each  member  of  the 
family  makes  to  serve  the  home  ideal.  Any  effort 
which  supplements  or  sustains  any  other  effort  made 
1  for  the  family  as  a  whole  is  real  co-operation.  The 
1  child  who  is  given  no  regular  duty  relating  to  the 
J  comfort  of  the  home  is  defrauded  of  a  part  of  his 
inheritance.  Nothing  else  so  brings  out  his  conscious- 
ness of  being  an  integral  part  of  the  family.  The 
ideal  of  the  past  generation  was  implicit  obedience  on 
the  part  of  the  child.  While  we  recognize  quite  as 
strongly  that  the  authority  must  rest  where  the  re- 
sponsibility does,  on  the  parent,  we  see,  as  our  fore- 
fathers did  not,  that  the  more  freedom  we  can  give 
the  child  in  making  his  own  decisions,  the  more  mental 
force  and  will-power  he  has  acquired  to  aid  him  in 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOME  31 

the  day  when  he  must  decide  vital  questions  for 
himself,  by  the  aid  only  of  the  light  which  is  in  him. 
So  we  try  to  hold  the  home  ideal  before  the  children, 
that  we  may  awaken  in  them  the  desire  to  become  our 
comrades  and  co-operators,  knowing  that  an  ounce 
I  of  spontaneous  desire  is  worth  a  pound  of  compulsion. 

The  third  side  of  our  triangle  symbolizes  a  vital  ?f"5*f,*7„ 
point,  and  I  would  that  every  young  wife  could  so 
realize  it  that  she  would  establish  it — the  spirit  of 
Courtesy — as  the  law  and  habit  of  her  home.  The 
quality  of  the  family  life  is  determined  by  the  manner 
in  which  the  members  make  their  contributions  toward 
it.  We  have  all  seen  righteous  homes  to  which  grace 
and  joy  were  strangers.  The  selfish  person  of  gentle 
manners  adds  more  to  the  comfort  of  a  home  than 
the  unselfish  one  who  calls  attention  to  her  sacrifices, 
and  wears  the  martyr's  expression,  or  is  abrupt  and 
snappish.  Nothing  so  strains  the  spirit  of  Unity, 
which  is  the  basis  of  family  life,  as  personal  rudeness. 
What  a  comment  upon  the  home  ideal  is  the  fact  that 
we  feel  at  liberty  to  be  impolite  to  those  we  love  the 
most!  It  is  better  to  give  up  one's  own  way,  one's 
pleasures  and  even  one's  best  interests,  than  to  pre- 
serve them  at  the  sacrifice  of  Courtesy  between  hus- 
band and  wife,  or  parent  and  child.    What  is  the  use 

'  of  the  inharmonious  home  ?  What  does  it  create  but 
unhappy,  discontented  people  who  add  to  the  unrest 
of  the  world  ?  No  result  can  come  from  any  effort  of 
the  mother,  if  the  child  sets  itself  against  it,,  and  re- 
fuses to  co-operate  in  obedience.  And  no  joy  can 
come  to  any  of  them,  if  every  happening  calls  out 
irritability  and  rudeness.  The  home  is  privilege,  but 
it  is  duty,  too.     One  may  love  it  with  all  one's  heart, 

I  but  one  must  order  it  well  and  wisely,  or  it  proves 
but  "Dead  Sea  Fruit." 


II 


Division  of 
duties 
between 
husband  and 
wife 


HOME-MAKING  VERSUS  HOUSEKEEPING 

CAROLINE  L.  HUNT 
Author  of  "Daily  Meals  of  School  Children  " 

UBLIC  opinion  prescribes  quite  exactly  the 
duties  of  man  and  those  of  woman  in  connec- 
tion with  home-making.  Of  each  it  expects 
a  certain  responsibility  for  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  the  other  sharers  of  the  family  life.  In  ad- 
dition it  expects  man  to  earn  the  money  that  is  neces- 
sary for  the  maintenance  of  the  home,  and  woman  to 
do  the  housekeeping.  The  chief  work  for  the  home 
which  it  requires  of  man  he  can  perform  by  continu- 
ing the  occupation  which  he  selected  for  himself  in 
early  life  because  he  felt  it  was  suited  to  his  talents 
and  abilities  and  because  he  thought  he  should  enjoy 
it.  With  this  occupation  it  does  not  expect  his  home- 
making  to  interfere.  On  the  other  hand,  woman's 
chief  work  for  the  home,  if  we  understand  thereby 
that  which  absorbs  most  of  her  time,  is  done  in  an 
unspecialized  occupation  upon  which  in  most  cases 
she  would  never  have  entered  except  as  a  means  to 
home-making.  For  this  occupation  any  special  work 
which  she  has  previously  undertaken  must  be  either 
wholly  or  partially  sacrificed  when  she  becomes  a 
home-maker.  Thus  while  man  is  at  present,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  securing  both  the  advantages  of  home 
and  the  opportunity  to  make  use  of  special  talents, 
woman  is  being  forced  to  a  choice  between  the  two. 
This  condition  of  affairs  is  the  result,  natural  per- 

32 


HOME-MAKING   VERSUS   HOUSEKEEPING     33 


haps,  of  social  conditions  in  the  past.  There  was  a 
time,  not  so  many  years  ago,  when,  except  among  the 
members  of  privileged  classes,  the  activities  which 
were  necessary  to  home-making  were,  in  the  case  of 
man  as  well  as  of  woman,  identical  "with  those  that 
represented  the  best  outlet  for  special  talents.  To 
make  a  home  for  wife  and  children,  the  man  hewed 
timber,  built  a  house,  gathered  fuel,  and  raised  food. 
To  express  her  love  for  her  family,  the  woman  cared 
for  the  house  and  cooked  the  food.  Nor  did  society 
offer  to  either  a  more  specialized  occupation. 

But  the  time  came  when  the  world  began  to  think 
that  there  was  a  great  waste  of  time  in  these  indi- 
vidual methods  of  meeting  the  universal  desires  for 
food  and  shelter,  and  also  a  great  diversion  of  energy 
from  the  special  talents  with  which  individuals  were 
endowed,  and  so  there  was  instituted  a  system  of 
specialization  and  co-operation,  which  has  with  time 
gro"WTi  more  elaborate  and  intricate. 

It  was  then  that  man  made  a  discovery  and  re- 
ceived a  reward  for  his  far-sightedness.  He  saw  that 
the  a<iti\ities  that  had  before  been  both  necessary  to 
his  home-making  and  also  the  best  way  in  which  he 
could  use  his  talents  were  gradually  dividing  them- 
selves into  two  classes.  Those  of  the  first  class  were 
no  longer  either  necessary  to  his  home-making,  or 
the  best  field  that  society  offered  for  the  use  of  his 
peculiar  powers.  These  he  passed  over  to  specialists 
and  became  a  specialist  himself.  He  passed  over  the 
building  of  houses  to  the  carpenter  and  the  raising  of 
wheat  to  the  farmer.  The  activities  of  the  other  class 
he  saw  were  still  necessary  to  his  home-making,  and 
although  not  specially  adapted  to  his  abilities,  he  con- 
tinued to  engage  in  them  for  affection's  sake.  From 
time  to  time,  however,  he  sees  that  one  of  the  activ- 


Gradual 
division  of 
man's  home 
duties 


34    HOME-MAKING   VERSUS  HOUSEKEEPING 

ities  of  the  second  class  has  passed  over  into  the  first 
class.  For  a  long  time  he  considered  the  care  of  the 
furnace  a  part  of  his  home-making".  Now,  in  many 
cities  there  have  been  established  central  heating 
plants  from  which  hot  water  is  sent  for  the  heating  of 
many  houses,  the  householder's  work  being  thus  re- 
duced to  the  occasional  opening  or  closing  of  a  valve. 
Incidentally,  it  may  be  said  that  it  has  not  been  re- 
corded of  any  man  that  when  he  connected  his  pri- 
vate plant  with  the  public  supply  of  heat,  it  was  with 
a  hand  that  trembled  for  fear  he  might  be  thereby 
endangering  the  sanctity  of  home  life, 
ac«vf«es^°™°  While    man    has   been   effecting   this   separation, 

of  women  woman  has  clung  to  the  manifold  tasks  of  her  house- 

keeping as  if  they  were  still  essential  to  her  home- 
making  and  still  the  best  outlet  to  her  powers.  That 
she  should  have  done  this  for  some  time  after  man 
discontinued  the  greater  part  of  his  direct  work  for 
the  home  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  In  the  original 
distribution  of  work  between  man  and  woman,  those 
duties  fell  to  the  woman  which  were  best  suited  to 
the  one  who  was  the  child-bearer  and  was  obliged  to 
stay  much  in  one  place  and  care  for  young  children. 
Thus  it  fell  to  her  lot  to  care  for  the  supplies  which 
man  foraged  to  obtain.  With  this  division  of  labor, 
the  services  of  man  and  woman  formed  a  continuous 
channel  through  which  the  world's  material  resources 
were  brought  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  family.  Of 
this  channel,  man  controlled  the  end  which  communi- 
cated with  the  outside  world.  Into  this  he  put  sup- 
plies, as  it  were,  in  the  rough.  The  woman  superin- 
tended the  end  that  communicated  with  the  home. 
She  received  the  supplies  and  did  the  fine  work  of 
adapting  them  to  the  needs  of  the  family.  When  so- 
ciety began  to  take  upon  itself  the  work  of  supplying 


HOME-MAKING   VERSUS   HOUSEKEEPING     35 


the  physical  needs  of  the  family,  it  was  natural  that 
it  should  have  assumed  man's  work  first,  and  by  do- 
ing that  should  have  gradually  prepared  itself  to 
assume  woman's  also.  It  was  natural,  too,  that  even 
after  it  had  qualified  itself  to  do  woman's  work,  she 
should  not  have  discovered  the  fact  immediately,  for 
she  was  so  much  at  home  that  she  was  slow  to  see 
what  was  going  on  in  the  outer  world.  For  these  rea- 
sons we  must  pardon  a  certain  amount  of  delay,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  at  present  woman  is  doing 
much  work,  presumably  in  the  interests  of  home, 
which  the  interests  of  home  no  longer  demand,  a  fact 
(  which  she  has  not  had  plenty  of  time  to  discover. 

The  chief  reason  for  this  failure  of  woman  to  ad- 
just her  life  to  changed  conditions  is  the  widespread 
•  belief  that  the  passing  of  private  housekeeping  would 
I  mean  the  destruction  of  the  home.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  there  is  nothing  in  human  experience  and  noth- 
ing observable  in  human  nature  to  indicate  that  home 
is  in  such  unstable  equilibrium  that  a  slight  change 
in  its  external  form  would  be  likely  to  cause  it  to  tot- 
ter and  fall  to  destruction.  From  time  immemorial 
it  has  been  the  rule  for  individuals  to  find  other  in- 
dividuals whom  they  loved  more  than  they  loved  the 
crowd,  from  whom  they  could  draw  special  inspira- 
tion, and  to  whom  they  could  be  particularly  helpful. 
With  these  individuals  of  related  mind  and  heart 
they  have  sought  close  companionship  for  the  sake  of 
the  expression  of  affection  and  for  the  sake  of  mutual 
helpfulness.  There  is  nothing  at  present  to  show  that 
human  nature  is  changing  in  this  respect.  On  the 
contrary,  evolution,  which  involves  variation,  tends  to 
intensify  in  the  individuals  of  the  human  species 
those  qualities  of  heart  which  fit  them  for  special 
loves  and  friendships.  As  human  beings  develop,  also, 


Failure    of 
home  life 
to  adjust  to 
modern 
conditions 


36     HOME-MAKING   VERSUS   HOUSEKEEPING 

they  become  less,  rather  than  more,  satisfied  with  self- 
ish forms  of  affection  which  do  not  carry  with  them  a 
desire  for  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  the  one 
that  is  loved.  But  the  chances  are  that  the  one  that 
is  loved  Avill  develop,  also,  and  will  acquire  special 
mental  powers,  which  will  seek  expression  in  special 
forms  of  work.  And  so  it  will  become  ever  more  the 
part  of  affection  to  seek  through  close  association 
vdih  those  who  are  loved,  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
their  peculiar  needs. 
Definition  of  Every  time  those  who  are  drawn  together  by  love 

and  by  common  sympathies  and  interests  seek  close 
.  comradeship,  there  arises  the  necessity  for  certain 
material  arrangements,  differing  with  different  social 
conditions — it  may  be  a  common  roof,  it  may  be  a 
common  food  supply.  The  relation  between  these  ma- 
terial conveniences  and  the  desire  for  close  associa- 
tion must  not,  however,  be  misunderstood.  Where  the 
common  roof  or  the  common  food  supply  are  sought 
as  a  means  of  making  the  close  association  possible, 
there  we  have  a  home.  Where  the  close  association  is 
accidental  and  the  result  of  convenience  in  getting 
the  physical  comforts  of  life,  there  we  have  a  hotel 
or  a  boarding  house  or  an  orphanage  or  some  other 
place  that  never  was  and  never  will  be  a  home.  In 
order,  then,  to  destroy  in  the  human  race  the  desire 
for  that  rest  and  quiet  and  retirement  and  close  com- 
radeship which  alone  is  home,  we  must  take  from  it 
not  the  private  kitchen,  but  the  capacity  for  affection 
and  the  ideal  of  what  the  expression  of  affection 
should  involve. 

To  be  sure,  in  the  past,  private  housekeeping  was 
a  necessary  means  for  securing  intimate  companion- 
ship, and  so  it  is  often  in  the  present.  In  the  past, 
however,  there  were  mechanical  difficulties  in  the  way 


HOME-MAKING    VERSUS   HOUSEKEEPING     37 


I 


of  public  housekeeping  for  the  benefit  of  private 
home-making,  which  do  not  exist  today.  Now  food 
can  be  prepared  in  large  quantities  as  well  as  in 
small,  and  schemes  have  been  devised  for  transport- 
ing cooked  food  without  injury.  Women  are  now  be- 
ing trained  to  do  housecleaning  on  a  large  scale  in 
hotels  and  hospitals.  With  the  present  facilities  for 
rapid  transit  they  could  assume  the  care  of  several 
small  establishments  as  well  as  of  one  large  one.  We 
have,  therefore,  no  longer  the  excuse  that  practical 
difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  better  housekeeping 
methods. 

Perhaps  the  most  unfortunate  result  of  our  be- 
lated housekeeping  methods  is  the  fact  that  they  are 
preventing  women  from  preparing  themselves  for 
certain  new  duties  which  social  changes  are  making 
an  important  part  of  home-making  today.  These 
changes,  by  increasing  the  dependence  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  the  family  upon  society,  are  making 
knowledge  of  social  conditions  an  indispensable  quali- 
fication for  good  home-making.  If  women  are  to  se- 
cure this  knowledge,  they  must  have  more  time  for 
studying  and  more  time  for  active  participation  in 
work  outside  of  the  home  than  it  is  possible  for  them 
to  secure  under  present  conditions. 

Take,  for  example,  the  work  of  directing  the  edu- 
cation of  a  child — one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
home-maker's  duties.  This  was  once  a  comparatively 
simple  matter,  when  possible  careers  were  few  and  the 
means  of  preparation  for  life-work  even  fewer.  Now 
that  possible  fields  for  activity  are  multiplying,  and 
educational  institutions  increasing  in  number  and 
variety,  the  woman  who  would  satisfactorily  superin- 
tend the  education  of  her  child  must  herself  have  a 
broader  knowledge  of  society,  of  its  needs  and  oppor- 


Interference 
of  housewife's 
duties  with 
those  of  the 
homemaJ^er 


38    HOME-MAKING  VERSUS   HOUSEKEEPING 

tunities,  than  she  can  obtain  within  the  four  walls  of 
her  home. 

Again,  the  commodities  which  are  used  in  the 
home  were  formerly  also  prepared  in  the  home,  and 
the  woman  who  gave  her  attention  exclusively  to  her 
household  was  the  woman  who  was  most  likely  to 
know  when  the  health  of  her  family  was  being  endan- 
gered. Now,  most  of  the  commodities  used  in  the 
home  are  made  far  away  from  it,  and  the  responsi- 
bility for  their  good  quality  is  widely  distributed. 
Now  it  is  not  the  woman  who  gives  her  time  exclu- 
sively to  her  home  who  is  most  likely  to  know  whether 
or  not  the  milk  that  she  serves  to  her  child  has  been 
adulterated,  and  whether  or  not  the  coat  that  she 
buys  for  him  was  made  by  the  bedside  of  a  smallpox 
patient.  Nor  is  it  this  woman  who  is  best  prepared 
to  ward  off  from  the  home  the  dangers  which  come 
from  impure  food  and  unsanitary  conditions  of  prep- 
aration of  the  articles  in  common  use. 

Once  there  was  no  domestic  service  problem.  Now 
this  problem  is  hanging  over  the  home  and  threaten- 
ing its  comfort  and  happiness.  Its  solution  rests  not 
with  the  woman  who  is  able  to  see  it  only  as  it  affects 
herself  and  her  household,  but  with  the  woman  who 
sees  it  in  its  broad  industrial  and  social  bearings. 
Homek^isping  \  Just  as  long  as  public  opinion  insists  upon  seeing 
end  ^^  in  the  varied  activities  of  housekeeping  ends  in  them- 

selves, just  so  long  will  it  run  the  risk  of  insisting 
apon  them  after  they  have  become  not  only  unneces- 
sary to  good  home-making,  but  even  impediments  to 
it.  Only  when  it  sees  in  home  the  end,  and  in  the  ma- 
terial surroundings  of  home  and  in  the  work  connect- 
ed with  it  merely  the  means,  will  it  have  a  conception 
of  home-making  adjustable  to  changing  social  condi- 
/  tions  and  favorable  to  the  best  interests  of  home  it- 
'     self. 


Ill 


THE  ART  OF  HOME-MAKING 

MINNA  A.  STONER 

Professor  of  Domestic  Science,  Oklahoma  Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College 

T  is  a  fact  that  many  tasks  and  industries 
formerly  carried  on  in  the  home  are  now  rele- 
gated to  the  shops  and  factories.  The  conse- 
quent development  in  the  activities  and  posi- 
tion of  women  is  a  subject  of  world-wide  interest  and 
discussion  among  all  specialists  in  economics.  "It  is 
estimated  that  the  majority  of  people  spend  two-thirds 
of  their  incomes  for  so-called  vital  needs — those  pri- 
mary needs  essential  to  the  best  physical  development 
of  the  race." 

Pure  food,  pure  air,  healthful  clothing,  sanitary 
housing,  heat  and  light — the  problem  of  providing 
them  out  of  a  fixed  allowance  and  saving  for  the  in- 
tellectual and  social  demands  and  requirements  cer- 
tainly calls  for  a  practical  training,  a  knowledge  of 
economics  and  its  application  to  consumption,  pro- 
duction and  the  adjustment  of  incomes  and  expendi- 
tures. "Other  investigators  have  estimated  that  the 
consumption  of  95  per  cent  of  the  world's  goods  is 
directly  controlled  by  woman  and  the  center  of  their 
consumption  is  the  home."  The  wise  application  of 
such  knowledge  in  the  every  day  affairs  of  the  aver- 
age home  would  work  a  complete  revolution  in  the 
home  and  national  life,  as  well  as  expand  the  in- 
fluence of  the  scientific  spirit  and  pedagogical  phe- 
nomena of  the  present  time. 

39 


Home-making 
a  business 
requiring  a 
new    sort 
of  training 


40 


THE    ART    OF    HOME-MAKING 


Ideals  of 
edncation 


To  read  the  fashions,  to  watch  the  advertisements 
for  bargains,  to  ride  a  horse,  to  operate  an  automo- 
bile, to  play  the  piano  a  little,  to  paint  a  little,  to  be 
able  to  prepare  an  occasional  club  paper,  are  not  ade- 
quate preparation  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  life. 
The  important  responsibilities  resting  upon  woman 
today  require  training  quite  different  from  that  of 
even  twenty-five  years  ago.  A  number  of  college 
and  university  graduates  have  found  difficulty  in  ad- 
justing themselves  and  their  homes  to  the  activities 
of  a  very  practical  world.  In  their  efforts  they  have 
not  included  the  power  of  effective  living.  They  have 
neglected  to  learn  how  to  apply  the  methods  acquired 
in  the  laboratory  or  class  room  to  the  problem  of 
every  day  life.  Others  have  failed  because  they  lacked 
the  right  ideals  and  have  not  worked  out  a  standard 
of  living  in  harmony  with  their  needs  and  environ- 
ments. 

In  their  estimation  of  higher  education,  they  have 
failed  to  see  the  value  of  education  in  guiding  mental 
capacity.  This  is  as  true  of  the  pupils  in  secondary; 
schools  as  of  college  students.  The  ability  to  execute, 
the  discipline  of  mind  to  direct  their  powers  and 
efforts  have  never  been  trained  or  directed. 

The  more  we  investigate  this  side  of  the  question, 
the  more  we  realize  that  in  the  present  system  of  edu- 
cation we  must  strive  to  reduce  the  number  of  in- 
eapables  and  the  number  of  failures  among  all 
classes,  and  endeavor  to  secure  a  higher  efficiency  in 
social,  civic,  philanthropic,  business  and  home  pur- 
suits. 

j  Is  it  too  much  to  ask  for  every  child  of  school  age 
to  be  given  all  the  beauty,  all  the  perfection  of  which 
the  body,  mind  and  spirit  are  capable,  regardless  of 
sex  or  class,  that  the  best  results  mentally,  morally, 


THE    ART    OF    HOME-MAKING 


41 


physically  and  socially  may  be  achievedJorJhej-aee  ? 
To  this  all  answer  in  the  negative.  Such  an  oppor- 
ftunity  is  just.  It  should  be  the  national  ideal  of  our 
Icountry.  Teaching  the  child  to  know  himself  and  his 
'relation  to  others  and  the  world  around  him  is  the 
ideal  all  should  strive  for.  When  all  these  things  are 
learned  crime  will  be  unkno\sTi,  for  the  motive  of 
committing  crime  will  not  exist.  One  step  toward 
such  an  ideal  system  has  already  been  taken  in  the 
place  for  new  adjustment,  the  provisions  of  training 
suited  to  the  needs  and  tendencies  of  the  child  rather 
than  casting  all  in  the  same  mould  regardless  of  abil- 
ity and  environment.  Our  educators  might  as  well 
try  to  make  all  men  engineers  as  to  make  all  women 
housekeepers  and  nothing  else. 

Home  economics  in  our  secondary  schools,  col- 
leges and  universities  is  not  simply  the  work  of  train- 
ing w^omen  to  be  housekeepers.  Neither  is  it  just 
teaching  girls  to  cook  and  sew.  These  are  very  small 
parts  of  a  broad  application  of  science  and  art  which 
involves  at  least  sixteen  distinct  professions.  Home 
I  economics  relates  to  the  home  and  the  ideal  develop- 
ment of  the  race.  It  is  the  application  of  economics, 
sociology,  psycholog>^,  physics,  chemistry,  biology, 
physiology,  bacteriology,  sanitation,  architecture, 
dietetics,  hygiene,  history  and  art  to  the  problems  of 
home  life.  "It  is  the  nucleus  of  every  other  economy 
in  the  world,"  because  it  means  the  conception  and 
maintenance  of  life  at  its  best  in  the  safest  environ- 
ment. 

Mrs.  Richards  declares  home  economics  to  be  the 
fourth  '*R"  in  education — right  living. 

The  Mary  Lowell  Stone  exhibit,  in  which  the  As- 
sociation of  Collegiate  Alumnae  w^as  so  deeply  inter- 
ested, gives  the  declaration  that: 


Purpose 
home 
economics 
courses 


of 


What   home 
economics 
stands  for 


42 


THE    ART    OF   HOME-MAKING 


Domestic 

economy 

defined 


Euthenics 
defined 


J  "Home  economics  stands  for  the  ideal  home  life 
for  today  unhampered  by  the  traditions  of  the  past. 

"The  utilization  of  the  resources  of  modern 
science  to  improve  the  home  life. 

"The  freedom  of  the  home  from  the  dominance  of 
things  and  their  due  subordination  to  ideals. 

"The  simplicity  of  material  surroundings  which 
will  most  free  the  spirit  for  the  more  important  and 
permanent  interests  of  the  home  and  society." 

It  might  be  of  interest  to  add  in  this  connection 
the  difference  between  the  numerous  terms  used  to 
designate  the  work.  The  following  nomenclature  was 
offered  by  the  Lake  Placid  Conference: 

"  'Hand  Work'  is  the  proper  term  to  apply  to 
work  in  primary  and  grammar  schools,  its  main  ob- 
ject being  to  teach  the  child  skill  wath  the  hands,  to 
know  materials,  to  observe  details,  to  direct  the  mind 
in  the  early  formative  period  toward  home  interests." 

"  'Domestic  Science'  is  the  term  used  to  describe 
the  work  in  secondary  schools,  which  offer  the  best 
illustrations  of  the  scope  of  work  classed  under  the 
term." 

"  'Domestic  Economy'  and  often  'Domestic  Arts' 
are  the  terms  used  in  the  normal  schools,  agricultural 
colleges  and  professional  schools.  In  those  institu- 
tions the  subject  of  applied  art  and  science  are  cor- 
related AWth  the  subjects,  physics,  chemistry  and 
physiology,  etc.,  expanding  the  work  upon  the  broader 
basis. ' ' 

"Euthenics  is  the  new  term  suggested  for  the 
work  in  universities  and  colleges.  The  course  includes 
\  all  that  is  given  under  the  term  Domestic  Science 
'  and  Domestic  Economy,  and  the  work  of  the  profes- 
sional schools,  together  "vvith  research  work.  Eu- 
thenics is  derived  from  the  Greek,  meaning  'Better 


THE    ART    OF   HOME-MAKING  43 

1  living.'  As  yet  it  has  not  been  universally  accepted. 
Therefore  the  old  terms  Domestic  Economy,  House- 
hold Arts  or  Home  Economics  are  more  generally 
adopted."  "Household  Administration,"  "House- 
hold Technology"  and  "Domestic  Engineering"  are 
terms  that  have  been  adopted  in  some  professional 
schools. 

It  matters  little  what  term  is  applied  if  the  scope 
of  work  is  adjusted  to  conform  to  the  class  of  institu- 
tion, and  if  the  method  of  teaching  is  all  that  could 
be  desired,  considering  time,  money  and  opportunity 
for  giving  the  training.  After  all,  home  economics 
courses  offer  a  rational  means  to  obtain  and  transmit 
essential  knowledge  that  cannot  be  secured  in  other 
branches  of  study  and  research. 

Each  year  there  is  less  controversy  over  the  sub-  Rank  of 
ject  of  academic  credits  and  the  effect  upon  stand-  economics  in 
ards  of  scholarship.  There  is  also  a  marked  increase 
in  the  number  of  universities  and  colleges  of  high 
rank  which  offer  advanced  training  in  home  econom- 
ics. It  is  no  longer  an  experiment  in  education.  It 
has  endured  the  scientific  test  and  has  gained  its 
proper  place  in  the  colleges  and  universities.  A  home 
economics  course  founded  upon  a  scientific  and  peda- 
gogical basis  deserves  without  question  the  same  rank 
in  the  college  and  university  course  as  any  literary 
subject.  It  is  upon  this  standard  that  all  the  college 
and  university  courses  have  been  established.  In  some 
of  the  secondary  schools  home  economics  count  one- 
half  unit  or  one  unit  of  science  credit  for  college  en- 
trance requirements.  These  are  encouraging  facts  to 
note  for  those  who  have  been  the  promoters  in  ad- 
vancing the  work  and  who  have  been  the  pioneers  in 
its  development  and  expansion  in  the  modern  system 
of  education. 


schools 


44  THE    AET    OF   HOME-MAKING 

One  of  the  world's  most  distinguished  university 
presidents  declared  a  few  years  ago  that,  ' '  In  the  evo- 
lution of  education,  educators  have  come  to  see  that 
all  knowledge  which  is  put  into  scientific  and  peda- 
gogic form  and  which  takes  hold  on  life  and  thought 
has  value  for  mental  discipline,  and  may  properly  be 
classed  with  the  humanities."  He  strongly  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  courses  of  home  econom- 
ics in  our  co-educational  universities  upon  the  basis 
referred  to  in  the  foregoing.  The  first  requisite  in 
the  general  training  of  the  girl  and  the  home-maker 
is  a  definite  understanding  of  social  economics  in  all 
its  aspects.  Those  who  have  given  thought  to  the 
question  declare  it  is  pre-eminently  a  woman's 
problem. 

"If  Munsterburg's  assertion  is  widely  true,  that 
in  America  it  is  the  women  who  have  the  leisure  and 
cultivation  to  direct  the  development  of  social  condi- 
tions, ' '  then  with  their  leisure  and  talent  comes  a  cor- 
responding responsibility  which  the  American  woman 
cannot  cast  aside.  The  economic  function  of  woman 
and  her  part  in  the  social  economics  of  the  world 
must  be  studied  to  gain  the  idea  hoped  for  purposeful 
womanhood. 


IV 


WHAT  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 
IS  DOING  FOR  THE  HOME 

JOHN  HAMILTON 

Farmers'  Institute   Specialist,   Department  of  Agriculture, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

N  a  broad  sense,  every  act  of  the  Government 
affects  the  home  life  of  its  people.  The  Gov- 
ernment itself,  in  its  last  analysis,  is  only  a 
great  aggregation  of  homes.  They  are  the 
sources,  the  springs  of  its  life.  From  them  it  draws  all 
of  its  vitality.  If  they  are  defective  in  any  important 
respect,  the  nation,  or  what  is  its  equivalent,  the  Gov- 
ernment, is  necessarily  defective  and  in  similar 
respects.  If  these  fountains  of  national  life  are  cor- 
rupt, their  waters  will  carry  disease  and  death  wher- 
ever they  flow.  If  they  are  clean  and  sweet  and  pure, 
the  national  life  is  likewise  clean  and  sweet  and  pure. 

Because  of  this,  there  is  nothing  that  we,  as  a 
people,  need  so  much  as  homes — good  homes — not 
dwelling  places  merely,  although  we  need  these  as 
well,  but  homes — intelligent,  comfortable,  permanent, 
restful,  genuine,  God-fearing  homes. 

In  1900,  10  per  cent  of  the  families  of  this  country 
were  houseless.  At  that  time  there  were  on  the  main- 
land of  the  United  States  over  sixteen  million  (16,- 
187,715)  families,  and  only  14,430,145  houses  in 
which  to  dwell.  In  other  words,  in  1900  almost  two 
million  families  (1,757,740)  in  this  country  were  in 
need  of  shelter,  which  is  the  first  requisite  of  a  home. 

Of  the  families  for  whom  houses  were  provided. 


What  is  the 

government 

doing  to 

establish  and 

foster 

such   homes? 


Vol.   1 — 4 


45 


46    THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

less  than  one  half  (46.5)  per  cent  owned  their  own 
dwellings.  Fifty-three  and  five-tenths  per  cent  were 
renters,  changing  their  abode  from  year  to  year  with 
no  traditional  strong  attachment  to  any  one  locality 
and  with  no  permanent  property  interest  in  any  com- 
munity, or  in  any  single  foot  of  ground. 

Of  more  than  sixteen  million  families  in  the 
United  States,  5,698,901,  or  35.2  per  cent,  are  located 
upon  the  farms,  and  10,488,814,  or  64.8  per  cent,  live 
in  the  cities  and  the  towns.  One  hundred  years  ago, 
or  less,  these  proportions  were  almost  precisely  re- 
versed. The  trend  of  population  during  the  last  cen- 
tury has  been  cityward,  until  now  fully  65  per  cent 
of  our  people  live  in  towTis  and  cities. 

The  remark  of  a  gentleman  to  a  friend  who  was 
rushing  down  the  street  to  take  his  suburban  train 
carries  at  least  a  particle  of  truth.  To  the  inquiry, 
""Where  are  you  going  in  such  a  hurry?"  the  answer 
came,  "I  am  going  out  to  the  country  to  my  home." 
The  gentleman  replied :  * '  Happy  man !  I  congratulate 
you.    I  have  no  home.     I  live  in  a  city." 

Of  the  5,698,901  families  dwelling  on  farms,  64.4 
per  cent  of  these  farms  are  o\ATaed  by  their  occupants, 
and  only  35.6  per  cent  are  in  the  hands  of  tenants. 
Whereas  of  the  10,488,814  towTi  and  city  families, 
only  36.5  per  cent  own  the  property  in  which  they 
live,  and  63.7  per  cent  are  renters. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  from  its 
very  foundation  has  been  deeply  interested  in  locat- 
ing its  citizens,  not  in  towns  and  cities,  but  out  upon 
the  land.  For  this,  cheap  lands  reserved  for  actual 
settlers,  home-makers,  has  ever  been  its  policy.  Mil- 
lions upon  millions  of  dollars  have  been  expended  by 
the  Government  for  rendering  available  arid  regions 
and  reclaiming  swamps  and  miasmatic  districts  for 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME    47 

the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  locate  upon  the  land — 
to  those  who  wish  to  become  permanent  dwellers  in 
this  nation,  an  integral  part  of  the  citizenship  of  the 
state. 

The  most  far-reaching  and  effective  method  that 
the  world  has  yet  discovered  for  insuring  the  pros- 
perity and  the  perpetuity  of  the  State  is  in  anchoring 
every  family  by  title  in  fee  to  a  piece  of  land.  Nothing 
identifies  a  man  with  his  own  country  more  closely 
than  the  ownership  of  a  piece  of  land,  particularly 
of  the  piece  of  land  on  which  he  lives.  A  landless 
people  is  a  homeless  people,  and  a  homeless  i)eople  is 
in  a  great  degree  a  disintegrated  people.  They  can 
never  ** strike  for  their  ancestral  altars"  or  for 
"fires" — they  own  neither.  The  ties  that  bind  them 
to  their  country  are  largely  commercial  ties.  "When 
distress  appears  in  one  locality,  they  are  free  to  flee 
to  any  other,  and  not  infrequently  they  leave  the 
home  of  their  nativity  for  foreign  shores.  They,  and 
their  children,  and  their  children's  children  roam  the 
earth.  No  single  spot  is  made  especially  sacred  to 
their  life  and  memory  by  the  name  of  '  *  home. ' ' 

There  is  something  in  the  ownership  of  a  piece  of 
land  that  steadies  a  man  for  life.  He  is  no  longer  a 
hoodlum,  nor  a  rioter;  he  is  no  petty  thief  to  pilfer 
upon  his  neighbors;  he  respects  the  property  of 
others  because  he  has  property  of  his  own ;  he  is  not 
a  member  of  the  commune  or  of  an  anarchistic  club ; 
he  is  a  supporter  of  government  and  law  in  times  of 
peace ;  he  is  their  defense  in  times  of  war ;  he  is  a  citi- 
zen of  the  State  in  the  highest  sense  in  which  that 
term  is  used.  He  is  no  Ishmaelite,  whose  hand  is 
against  every  man.  He  owns  a  home  and  lives  in  it. 
All  that  he  cherishes  and  holds  most  dear  in  life  is 
centered  in  and  about  that  spot.     There  his  children 


48 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 


National 
G-overnment 
and  Ideal 
homes 


are  born  and  reared;  there  the  ideal  family  life  that 
makes  for  strength  of  character,  love  of  country,  self 
reliance,  sturdiness  of  body  and  vigor  of  mind  are  all 
developed.  It  is  the  "gymnasium"  of  the  future 
artisan;  the  practice  school  for  the  future  citizen, 
through  whom  the  material  resources  of  the  nation 
are  to  be  developed  and  all  that  is  valuable  in  the  in- 
tellectual, moral  and  civic  life  of  the  commonwealth 
is  to  be  perpetuated.  There  cannot  be  too  many  such 
homes.  Whatever,  or  whoever,  in  Church  or  State, 
establishes  even  one  of  them  and  promotes  its  growth 
is  contributing  the  most  valuable  service  that  one  gen- 
eration can  render  to  its  successor.  Whatever  or  who- 
ever strikes  at  the  integrity  of  such  a  home,  strikes  at 
the  nation 's  life  and  is  a  curse,  whether  appearing  in 
the  form  of  an  angel  of  light,  as  fashion,  extrava- 
gance, ostentation,  frivolity  and  love  of  ease ;  or  in 
the  dark  garb  of  pestilence,  ignorance,  poverty  or  sin. 

What  is  the  National  Government  doing  to  plant 
ideal  homes,  to  cherish  and  uplift  the  home  life  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States?  I  have  just  referred 
to  the  cheap  lands  that  are  being  offered  and  to  rec- 
lamation schemes  that  the  Government  has  under- 
taken in  the  interest  of  home-seekers  and  home-mak- 
ers. These,  however,  are  only  the  fomidatious  upon 
which  the  homes  are  to  rest.  On  these  foundations 
must  be  erected  superstructures,  partly  out  of  wood 
and  brick  and  stone,  but  consisting  chiefly  in  mental, 
moral  and  physical  qualities,  in  the  spirit  of  self-for- 
getfulness,  helpfulness  and  love  that,  together,  make 
up  the  ideal  in  family  life. 

The  general  government  in  its  Department  of 
Agriculture  has  established  an  extensive  system  of 
national  aid  and  co-operation  for  the  betterment  of 
the  homes  of  the  people,  particularly  such  as  are  lo- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 


49 


cated  in  rural  conununities.  There  are  now  assembled 
in  this  Department  over  ten  thousand  (10,420)  men 
and  women,  more  than  two  thousand  of  whom  are  ex- 
pert specialists,  scientists,  or  scientific  assistants,  all 
engaged  in  work  that  bears  upon  the  improvement  of 
conditions  in  the  life  of  the  people. 

Some  of  these  efforts  bear  directly  upon  that  life 
as  it  exists  in  the  home.  No  less  than  twenty-nine 
publications,  in  the  form  of  farmers'  bulletins,  pre- 
pared b}'  the  most  skillful  experts  to  be  had  in  the 
United  States,  have  been  issued  by  the  Department 
relating  to  the  character  and  value  of  various  pro- 
ducts in  their  use  as  food.  Some  of  these  publica- 
tions discuss  broadly  the  principles  of  human  nutri- 
tion; others  specifically  the  composition  and  prepara- 
tion for  use  of  various  food  products  that  make  up 
the  dietary  list  found  upon  the  tables  of  the  people. 
All  of  these  publications  have  been  put  in  popular 
language  and  are  adapted  to  the  conditions  and  every 
day  use  of  the  home-makers  of  the  United  States. 

Fifty-seven  other  bulletins  published  by  the  office 
of  experiment  stations  are  devoted  exclusively  to  diet- 
ary subjects,  giving  the  results  of  investigations, 
along  human  nutrition  lines,  continued  through  many 
years.  There  are  also  published  articles  upon  house- 
hold topics  in  all  the  editions  of  the  year  book  of  the 
Department  from  1894  to  1906.  The  work  of  the  De- 
partment in  the  direction  of  food  investigation  and 
human  nutrition  is  perhaps  the  most  extensive  and 
valuable  of  that  of  any  other  nation  in  the  world. 

The  Department  is  also  rendering  assistance  in  an 
educational  way  to  the  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
ing by  collecting  information  respecting  the  best 
methods  of  teaching  subjects  relating  to  the  life  of 
the  people  and  formulating  this  information  into  edu- 


Home 
bulletins 


Assistance  to 

educational 

institutions 


50  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

cational  courses  for  use  in  colleges  and  universities. 
Courses  have  been  prepared,  or  are  in  course  of  prep- 
aration, in  home  economics,  agronomy,  dairying, 
rural  engineering,  rural  economics,  zootechny  and 
kindred  subjects.  The  Department  has  also  expanded 
its  efforts  to  benefit  country  life  beyond  the  walls  and 
class  rooms  of  fixed  institutions  of  learning.  It  has 
had  prepared  courses  of  study  for  movable  schools  to 
be  sent  out  to  the  homes  of  the  people.  In  these 
schools  are  taught  to  classes  of  adults,  regularly  or- 
ganized, domestic  science  in  its  various  phases, 
dairying,  poultry  rearing,  orchard  management  and 
the  various  other  operations  that  in  the  aggregate 
make  up  what  is  called  the  agricultural  industry. 

The  Department  is  also  assisting  in  the  improve- 
ment of  the  rural  schools  by  preparing  and  issuing 
courses  of  study  in  agriculture  and  its  various  divi- 
sions adapted  to  high  schools  and  those  of  normal 
grade.  It  has  had  prepared  outlines  of  courses  in 
school  garden  work  for  boj's  and  girls  for  use  in  pri- 
mary country  schools.  It  is  also  aiding  rural  people 
in  a  very  practical  way,  through  the  extension  of 
higher  education  of  an  agricultural  character.  This 
is  accomplished  by  means  of  experts  who  are  sent  out 
to  give  advice  for  the  improvement  of  the  various 
operations  of  agriculture  and  who  organize  and  con- 
duct demonstration  farms,  and  by  inspecting,  collect- 
ing and  analyzing  the  various  food  products  offered 
on  the  markets,  detect  fraud  in  their  composition  and 
protect  the  public  health  against  injurious  ingredi- 
ents introduced  into  foods  as  preservatives,  or  ap- 
pearing in  the  form  of  decayed,  diseased  and  other- 
wise harmful  substances.  The  work  is  extended  also 
to  assist  the  mass  of  our  population  through  the  pub- 
lication and  distribution  annually  of  over  sixteen 
millions   of   bulletins    and   other    documents,    giving 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME    51 

reliable  information  upon  the  various  operations  em- 
ployed in  agricultural  production.  It  is  also  con- 
ducting extensive  investigations  for  the  discovery  of 
better  methods  of  practice  in  farming  operations.  In 
pursuing  these  investigations,  Department  men  are 
sent  out  to  all  parts  of  the  world  to  secure  plants  and 
animals  and  to  discover  methods  adapted  to  the  spe- 
cial conditions  existing  in  districts  in  the  United 
States  now  comparatively  unproductive. 

AU  of  the  work  of  the  Department  in  all  of  its 
Bureaus  and  Divisions  is  directed  to  the  betterment 
of  the  life  of  the  people,  and  much  of  it  is  in  co- 
operation with  the  local  public  agencies  existing  in 
the  several  States. 

Much  of  what  has  been  done  has  been  with  a  view     Homekeeping 

not 

to  taking  home-keeping  out  of  the  ranks  of  drudgery  drudgery 
and  giving  it  inspiration ;  to  affording  those  who  wish 
to  know  better  methods  opportunity  to  learn  them ; 
to  enabling  the  home  provider  to  furnish  wholesome 
food  and  to  teaching  the  home-keeper  how  to  prepare 
and  serve  it  well ;  to  insuring  clean,  comfortable  and 
sanitary  accommodations  for  the  mother  and  her  fam- 
ily ;  to  adorning  the  interior  of  her  dwelling  with  the 
various  comforts  and  refinements  of  life,  as  appro- 
priate furniture,  attractive  pictures  and  decorations, 
that  do  so  much  to  lend  to  home  life  its  charm ;  to 
providing  a  vegetable  garden  for  every  family ;  to 
furnishing  healthful  and  nourishing  food  for  growing 
children  and  hard  working  men ;  to  planting  the  im- 
mediate surroundings  of  the  home  with  ornamental 
trees,  shrubbery  and  flowers;  to  furnishing  an  abun- 
dance of  pure  water ;  to  providing  beautiful  and  health- 
ful surroundings,  free  from  exposure  to  malarial 
fever  and  other  injurious  diseases  arising  from  the 
overflow  of  rivers  and  from  undrained  swamps  and 
bogs,  and  to  organizing  and  making  accessible  schools, 


52  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

churches  and  local  societies  for  the  education — secular, 
religious  and  social — of  the  members  of  the  home. 
Agencies  j^  would  not  be  fair  in  making  this  very  imper- 

states  feet  presentation  to  leave  the  impression  that  the 
National  Government,  great  as  is  its  work,  is  doing 
all  that  is  being  done  for  the  betterment  of  homes 
in  the  United  States.  There  are  many  agencies  at 
work  in  the  respective  States  that  supplement  that 
which  the  National  Government  is  doing. 

The  agencies  that  are  in  operation  in  the  States 
in  aid  of  home  life  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two : 
those  that  are  of  a  public  character  and  those  that 
are  operated  through  the  instrumentality  of  private 
institutions  and  societies.  Of  the  public  institutions 
for  material  betterment  of  rural  communities  there 
are  the  agricultural  experiment  stations,  established 
for  research,  for  investigation  along  agricultural  and 
domestic  science  lines.  These  are  endowed  by  the 
National  Government  and  are  also  assisted  by  ap- 
propriations from  the  States.  There  are  also  boards 
of  agriculture,  and  various  other  public  societies 
for  the  promotion  of  special  interests  in  agriculture, 
as  horticulture,  dairv'ing,  poultry  rearing,  beekeep- 
ing, animal  husbandry,  market  gardening  and  kin- 
dred lines  of  work,  all  relating  to  increasing  the  pro- 
ductive powers  of  farming  people. 

In  an  educational  way  there  are  the  colleges, 
especially  those  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts. 
These,  too,  have  their  origin  with  the  National  Gov- 
ernment, but  also  receive  liberal  support  from  the 
treasuries  of  their  respective  States.  There  are  the 
farmers'  institutes,  which  last  year  reached  2,400,000 
rT^ril  people,  with  agricultural  instruction,  and  which 
have  a  force  of  more  than  1,100  expert  lecturers  in 
the  employ  of  the  State  Directors  and  also  a  large 
number,  running  into  the  thousands,  of  local  lecturers 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME    53 

and  experts,  to  assist  this  teaching  force.  There  are 
the  high  schools  and  normal  schools,  the  State  De- 
partment of  Public  Instruction  and  the  entire  sys- 
tem of  primary  education  as  exemplified  in  the  pub- 
lic schools,  all  at  work  preparing  the  youth  of  the 
country  for  the  productive  industries  and  for  the 
duties  of  home-making  and  of  citizenship.  These 
agencies  are  operated  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  and 
are  supported  mainly  by  the  States  as  public  institu- 
tions. 

I  have  said  that  there  are  two  main  divisions  or 
classes  of  agencies  at  work  for  rural  betterment,  one 
of  a  public  nature,  such  as  those  just  described,  and 
the  other  of  a  private  character.  This  last  includes 
such  organizations  and  societies  as  civic  clubs,  read- 
ing circles,  study  clubs,  libraries,  granges,  farm  clubs, 
organized  for  the  betterment  of  home  conditions,  but 
maintained  chiefly  by  private  means  and  undertaken 
by  private  initiative  and  operated  by  private  individ- 
uals or  boards. 

The  sum  of  effort  by  all  of  these  organizations  in 
the  betterment  of  home  life  is  simply  incalculable. 
Out  of  these  voluntary  efforts  by  individual  societies 
has  come  much  of  the  wider  work  undertaken  by 
the  public  institutions  under  the  direction  of  the 
several  States  and  the  National  Government.  With- 
out the  assistance  and  co-operation  of  these  local  or- 
ganizations much  of  the  value  of  the  work  by  the 
States  and  the  National  Government  would  be  lost. 
They  form  distributing  agencies  for  disseminating 
the  results  of  the  researches  and  discoveries  made  by 
the  higher  governmental  institutions  among  the 
people.  They  provide  effect4ve  channels  for  convey- 
ing information  and  for  incorporating  it  into  the 
every-day  practice  and  home  life  of  the  nation. 

The  home  is  the  heart,  the  center,  toward  which 


54 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  HOME 


What  should 
the  Govern- 
ment do  in 
the  future  for 
home   and 
chUd? 


all  that  is  being  done,  both  by  the  States  and  by  the 
Nation,  is  directed.  From  this  center  the  physical, 
moral  and  spiritual  life  that  is  to  control  and  ener- 
gize this  nation  in  its  future  must  proceed.  It  is  be- 
cause of  the  important  position  that  the  mother  main- 
tains in  the  family  life,  and  consequently  in  the  life 
of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  that  efforts  to  assist  her  by 
national,  state  and  local  means  are  justified.  If  she 
is  degraded,  or  if  her  conditions  and  surroundings  are 
hard,  so  that  physically,  mentally  or  morally  she  is 
dwarfed  and  weakened,  her  offspring  and  the  nation 
are  injured  to  an  irreparable  degree.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  her  load  is  lightened  and  the  home  life  made 
bright  and  full,  her  soul  expands  and  her  comfort- 
ing and  protecting  love  surrounds  not  only  all  the 
children  in  her  home,  but  goes  out  to  the  lonely  waifs 
that  have  lost  a  mother's  care  and  need  food,  cloth- 
ing and  shelter,  but,  more  than  all,  a  gentle  mother's 
love. 

This,  perhaps,  can  best  be  answered  by  another 
question.  What  is  the  home  established  for?  As  I 
have  already  intimated,  it  is  the  garden  spot  in  which 
seed  is  sown  that  is  to  produce  the  harvest  that  is 
to  nourish  and  sustain  our  national  life.  The  Gov- 
ernment must  see  that  good  seed  is  sown;  that  it  is 
cultivated  and  nourished  with  all  the  skill  and  tender 
care  that  a  planting  of  such  importance  must  receive 
to  thrive  and  bring  forth  abundant  and  perfect  fruit. 

The  Government  shall  see  that  all  that  tends  to 
harm  this  home,  this  garden,  or  break  in  upon  it,  to 
blight  or  injure  its  tender  plants,  is  immediately 
driven  off,  and  it  must  teach  those  who  are  the  im- 
mediate custodians  of  its  breathing,  thinking  and 
maturing  life,  the  mysteries  of  its  mental,  physical 
and  spiritual  needs  and  show  them  how  best  to  min- 
ister to  secure  their  fullest  development  and  growth. 


EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN  FOR  THE  PROFES- 
SION OF  LIFE 

''     SARAH  S.  PLATT  DECKER 

Former  President  of  the  General  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs 

ROM  the  time  of  Dr.  Gregory's  famous  writ- 
ing in  which  he  counselled  his  daughters 
after  this  wise,  "If  you  happen  to  have  any 
learning,  keep  it  a  profound  secret,  especially 
from  men,  who  look  with  a  jealous,  malignant  eye  on  a 
woman  of  great  parts  and  a  cultivated  understand- 
ing," and  from  the  time  when  men  commonly  sold 
their  wives  in  England  for  a  guinea  apiece,  up  to 
fifty  years  later  when  Lucy  Stone  was  not  permitted 
to  read  her  graduating  essay  at  Oberlin,  as  it  would 
be  considered  "indelicate" — from  these  times  to  the 
present  is  a  long  step.  Women  now  form  about  one- 
\  third  of  the  college  students  in  the  United  States,  one 
woman  in  every  one  thousand  is  receiving  a  college 
education,  and  in  place  of  seven  occupations  being 
\  open  to  her,  as  in  1840,  she  may  have  choice  in  this 
I  good  year,  of  upward  of  three  hundred  distinct  trades 
and  professions.  We  have  cause  for  great  satisfac- 
tion in  our  splendid  outlook.  But  because  woman's 
progress  has  been  so  rapid  and  unexpected,  more, 
and  much  more,  is  required  of  her,  and  therefore 
most  carefully  should  we  study  to  guide  this  great 
and  new  force  for  the  best  interests  of  individual  and 
community. 

55 


Trades  and 
professions 
open  to 
women 


56      EDUCATION  FOR  PROFESSION  OF  LIFE 


Why  girls 
are  sent 
to  college 


Dissatisfac- 
tion with 
college 
education 


"We  send  our  sons  to  college,  and  from  the  first 
mention  of  his  university  course,  we  choose  his  work 
in  life.  We  talk  of  it  with  him,  and  with  his  college 
masters.  We  read  books  about  his  chosen  profes- 
sion. We  direct  his  whole  thought  and  study  toward 
this  life  work.  How  about  our  daughters?  Do  we 
ever  ask  why  we  send  them  to  college  ?  No.  We  send 
them  because  it  is  the  fashion;  because  some  friend's 
daughters  are  going;  because  we  wish  them  to  make 
i^quaintances  outside  their  own  state  or  city.  Or, 
as  a  mother  made  answer  to  me  not  long  since,  "I 
send  Mary  to  college  because — Oh,  just  because." 

You  will  say  that  this  condition  applies  only  to  the 
mother  who  has  means,  whose  daughter  will  live  at 
home,  a  life  of  leisure,  etc.    Let  us  accept  the  state- 
ment.    Why  not  teach  these  daughters  of  the  well- 
to-do,  then,  to  live  at  home?     I  have  in  mind  many 
mothers  who  have  found  that  much  desired  college 
advantages  have  resulted  in  the  dissatisfaction  of  the 
uoved  daughter  "with  the  ordinary  life  and  conditions 
bf  the  household,  and  that  home-making  and  home 
nappiness  have  been  left  entirely  out  of  the  college 
curriculum.     The  answer  to  this  always  comes  from 
those  in  authority!  But  we  teach  cooking  and  domes- 
tic science  in  our  college !     Friends,  cooking  and  do- 
mestic science  are  not  home-making.    A  home  may  be 
made  as  beautiful  as  heaven  with  cold  potatoes  served 
on  a  deal  table.     The  cooking  and  household  work 
should  go  hand  in  hand  ^vith  the  college  training, 
but  from  the  first  day  of  the  freshman  course,   to 
T   the  croA^Tiing  glory  and  honors  of  commencement  day, 
f    could  we  not  instill  into  these  daughters  who  are  to 
{    be,  we  hope,  future  wives  and  mothers,  the  idea  that 
\^  home-making  is  a  science  to  be  learned,  and  not  a 
\ drudgery  to  be  dreaded? 


EDUCATION  FOR  PROFESSION  OF  LIFE      57 

Could  we  not  establish  a  profession  of  "daughter-  ]for'^iffo°'' 
hood"  or  motherhood  which  would  include  the  knowl- 
edge of,  and  willingness  to  share,  the  small  economies 
of  home ;  the  courtesy  and  attention  due  to  the  aged ; 
the  sacrifice  of  selfish  plans  and  the  thoughtful  con- 
sideration of  the  mother,  father,  and  other  members 
of  the  family ;  the  habits  of  industry,  and  the  graces 
and  accomplishments  of  happiness  and  personal 
service  ?  Let  us  leave  out  of  the  curriculum,  perhaps, 
some  of  its  long  list  of  topics  and  substitute  a  chair 
to  be  called  "The  Profession  of  Life,"  because,  the 
average  woman,  let  us  pray,  will  have  as  her  chief 
J  vocation,  not  only  the  moulding  of  her  ovm.  life,  but 
I  the  fashioning  of  many  others  as  well.  The  average 
woman,  too,  will  have  nothing  beyond  her  college 
course.  I  think  many  great  and  experienced  educa- 
tors disagree  with  this  point  of  view,  claiming  that 
all  special  life  fitting  should  be  outside  the  broader 
education,  but  can  the  majority  of  women  afford  the 
time  for  this  separate  training?  A  girl  leaves  high 
school  or  preparatory  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years, 
more  often  eighteen;  four  years  of  college  and  two 
years'  technical  training  make  a  woman  of  twenty- 
four  years,  an  absence  of  six  years,  perhaps,  from  the 
home,  and  the  consequent  weakening  and  weaning 
therefrom,  in  addition  to  the  expense  and  strain  upon 
family  income.  It  is  the  opinion  of  modern  educators 
that  men  cannot  afford  so  much  time  before  beginning 
their  lives,  and  Columbia  and  Harvard  give  an  A. 
B.  degree,  now,  for  a  three  years'  course.  Put  the 
life  training  into  the  four  years'  course  for  women. 

Mrs.  Perkins,  of  Tennessee,  puts  the  thought  of     of ^cou"|e "f e ' 
what  this  training  should  be  most  forcibly :  for  girls 

' '  Efficiency  is  the  condition  of  productiveness,  and 
the  girl's  college  course  should  be  such  that  when 


58      EDUCATION  FOR  PROFESSION  OF  LIFE 

she  leaves  her  alma  mater  she  will  realize  that  she 
has  a  work  to  do  and  is  a  producer  of  values  (not 
material)  for  herself  and  for  others.  She  should 
stand  for  something  in  the  community  in  which  she 
lives.  She  should  be  instructed  in  ways  which  will 
show  her  how  to  be  of  service  in  the  world,  and 
there  should  be  more  practical  courses  that  will  fit 
her  to  know  how  to  better  the  world  in  which  she 
\  lives.  That  woman  who  has  done  nothing  toward 
/  helping  some  individual  life  or  bettering  the  cora- 
t  munity  in  general,  may  be  said  to  be  a  failure.  Our 
girls  should  be  taught  to  see  how  much  they  can 
put  into  life,  not  how  much  they  can  get  out  of  it." 
Suppose  the  home  is  one  of  wealth  where  only 
the  gentle  ministrations  of  kindness  and  unselfish 
desires  are  needed,  yet,  even  then,  how  great  the  op- 
portunity for  our  college  woman  for  service  to  others 
not  so  fortunately  placed.  Has  she  been  trained  in 
practical  work:  sewing,  cooking,  household  work  and 
the  gentle  art  of  serving?  In  every  community  so 
many  are  in  need  and  thirsting  for  this  knowledge. 
I  have  in  mind  one  college  woman  who,  unaided  and 
alone,  brought  a  new  condition,  not  only  of  cleanli- 
ness and  industry,  but  also  of  hope  and  courage,  into 
a  city  street  of  fifteen  houses  which  were  homes  only 
in  name.  This  is  an  exceptional  case,  however,  and 
too  often  to  the  eye  of  the  layman  the  college  train- 
ing has  produced  a  daughter  not  in  touch  or  content 
with  home  surroundings,  with  no  definite  plan  for 
life  work,  with  no  apparent  interest  in  the  conditions 
of  her  community,  and  with  no  desire  to  give  service 
/  thereto — living  upon  college  days  and  doings,  and 
making  plans  only  for  her  own  diversion  and  pleas- 
ure, without  thought  of  the  obligations  which  her 
great  opportunities  have  entailed  upon  her — oppor- 


EDUCATION  FOR  PROFESSION  OF  LIFE      59 

tunities  which  should  have  made  each  homeliest  duty 
agreeable,  and  each  dullest  day  profitable. 

Cannot  the  college  give  something  better  than 
this  to  its  women  graduates?  It  can  never  be  done 
by  one  baccalaureate  sermon,  or  one  course  of  lectures, 
but  by  a  consistent,  constant,  scientific  training  of 
head,  hand  and  heart  throughout  the  entire  college 
course.  It  can  never  be  put  into  the  short  time  given 
to  technical  training,  for  it  must  be  interwoven  in 
the  warp  and  woof  of  the  whole  college  life,  and  must 
include  proper  values,  essentials,  obligations  of  citi- 
zenship, knowledge  of  business  methods,  courtesy  of 
the  heart,  contentment  and  pleasure  to  be  obtained 
from  every-day  happenings,  the  divine  art  of  hap- 
piness and  the  still  diviner  art  of  common  sense! 
These  lessons  will  not  come  to  woman  simply  through 
abstract  book  knowledge  of  college  fashions  and  tradi- 
tions. They  will  not  come  as  they  come  to  man,  be- 
cause of  her  past  limitations  and  narrow  outlook,  but 
they  must  be  studied  and  learned,  lived  and  practiced, 
and  must  be  the  new  salvation  which  is  to  come  to 
the  world  through  the  college  woman. 


Yl 


A  new 
ingredient  ol 
the 

educational 
dougli 


The    new 
mathematics 


THE  SCHOOL  BEGINS  TO  PREPARE  FOR  THE 

HOME* 

WILLIAM  HARD 
Editorial  Staff  of  "Everybody"  and  "The  Delineator" 

T  isn't  just  taking  a  few  household  arts  (such 
as  sewing  and  cooking)  and  nailing  them  on 
to  education.  It  isn't  just  gently  spreading 
another  layer  over  the  top  of  the  educational 
layer-cake.  It 's  much  more  important.  If  you  like,  it's 
much  more  dangerous.  It  amounts  to  nothing  less 
than  mixing  a  new  and  extremely  powerful  (even 
%'iolent)  ingredient  into  almost  every  bit  of  all  the 
dough  out  of  which  the  educational  cake  is  made. 

"We'll  begin  with  the  gentlest  possible  manifesta- 
tion of  the  workings  of  that  ingi*edient. 

A  teacher  of  Mathematics  in  the  new  Technical 
High  School  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  is  about  to  give  her 
girls  a  problem  in  Percentage.  The  mind  of  the  hu- 
mane visitor  recoils  before  the  prospect.  "Wrung  by 
recollections  of  his  own  hapless  childhood,  he  medi- 
tates decent  and  instant  withdrawal  from  a  room  in 
which  innocent  young  creatures  are  about  to  be  men- 
tally vivisected  on  some  such  operating  table  as: 


34.159%  of  .003 


1-^19 


X 


18 

.17 

.8 

of 

of 

.5 

4 

.3 

1.009%  of  9,837,476,859 


*An  article  for  parents  who  do  not  understand  the  school  cur- 
riculum, and  what  the  teachers  are  trying  to  do;  printed  by  per- 
mission of   "The  Delineator." 

GO 


o 
u. 

a. 

UJ 
ILI 

I 

O) 

UJ 

I 
h 


o 
o2 


LU  < 


±  re 

♦^  t^ 

c  — 

—  o 

re  Q. 

Q.  o 


THE  SCHOOL  PKEPARES  FOR  THE  HOME  61 


But  the  problem  set  by  the  teacher  of  Mathematics 
in  the  Cleveland  Technical  High  School  (which  is 
preparing  some  1,300  boys  and  girls  to  make  the  most, 
and  the  highest,  of  the  duties  of  the  shop  and  of  the 
kitchen)  turns  out  to  be  this: 

"Salmon  sells  for  18  cents  a  can;  weighs  li/4 
pounds;  and  contains  19.5  per  cent,  of  protein  and 
14.2  per  cent,  of  waste.  Sardines  sell  for  25  cents  a 
can ;  weigh  11  •"4  ounces ;  and  contain  23.7  per  cent, 
of  protein  and  5  per  cent,  of  waste.  Which  is  cheaper 
to  use?" 

Well,  that  isn't  so  painful.  Of  course,  it's  painful 
enough.  It  ought  to  be.  It's  perfectly  good  Mathe- 
matics. It  demands  effort.  But  it  goes  farther.  It 
creates  the  interest,  and  therefore  the  energy,  to  meet 
the  effort  demanded.  It  tells  a  girl  something  about 
food  values.  It  makes  her  think  a  bit  about  food 
costs.  It's  studying.  But  it  indicates  the  issue  from 
Studying  into  Living. 

The  boys  and  girls  in  the  Cleveland  Technical  High 
School  come  very  near  Living  all  the  time.  They  have 
entered  far  into  that  happy  day  foreseen  by  Professor 
John  Dewey  of  Columbia  University  when  "the  school 
shall  be  a  genuine  form  of  active  community  life  in- 
stead of  a  place  set  aside  in  which  to  learn  lessons." 

Let's  go  from  the  Mathematics  room  into  the 
Chemistry  room. 

There's  a  girl  pouring  hydrochloric  acid  over  cal- 
cium carbonate.  Kesult :  a  gas  called  carbon  dioxide. 
Rather  remote. 

"Is  it  interesting?" 

"Why,"  says  the  girl,  "it's  the  same  gas  that  we 
get  in  the  Domestic  Science  room  when  we  make 
bread. ' ' 

That's  what  makes  her  remember  her  Chemistry — 
its  issue  into  Living. 

Vol.    1—3 


A  definition 
of   school 


Chemistry 

and 

llTlng 


62    THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 

Mr.  Barker,  the  principal  of  the  school,  explains: 

"Last  year  that  girl  took  Physiology.  So  last 
year  her  cooking  lessons  were  made  to  bear  especially 
on  physiological  matters,  such  as  digestion.  This 
year,  her  second  year,  she  takes  Chemistry.  So  this 
year  her  cooking  lessons  are  made  to  bear  especially 
[on  the  chemical  compounds  which  appear  in  food." 

Perfectly     good   Mathematics.      Perfectly     good 
Physiology.     Perfectly  good  Chemistry. 
Sem°?  °'  Action !    Perhaps  that 's  the  reason  why  one  almost 

action  always  observes,   in  such  schools   as   the    Cleveland 

Tech,  the  two  following  remarkable  facts : 

First — There  are  hardly  any  irritated,  soured, 
crabbed  faces  among  the  teachers. 

Second — There  is  hardly  any  system  of  discipline 
{     for  the  pupils,  and  hardly  any  need  of  it. 

Is  it  not  worth  thinking  about,  that  in  these  ' '  bread- 
and-butter"  schools  there  is  usually  less  coercion  in 
government  and  more  ''sweetness  and  light"  in  tem- 
perament than  there  is  in  many  of  the  schools  ded- 
icated to  "pure  culture"? 

The  fact  is  that  "pure  culture"  is  one  of  the  most 
nervous  things  in  the  world.  The  French  philosopher, 
Jean-Jacques  Rousseau,  noted  that  characteristic  of 
it  when  he  wrote :  ' '  The  woman  of  culture  is  the 
plague  of  her  husband,  her  children,  her  family  and 
her  servants." 

Nothing  is  complete  when  it  is  "pure."     It  must 
be  "applied." 
Applied  It  is  to  "applied  culture"  that  schools  like  the 

the  schools    Cleveland  Tecli^ro  dedicated.  For  instance : 

Here's  a  room  in  which,  from  books  and  pictures, 
the  girls  of  the  Cleveland  Tech  study  the  history  of 
Art,  Here  is  another  room  in  which,  from  plant 
forms,  they  trace  the  development  of  conventionalized 


THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME     G3 

designs.  And  here's  still  another  room  in  which  they 
take  the  designs  which  they  themselves  have  made 
and  apply  them  to  fabrics  which  they  themselves  are 
going  to  wear.  Art  and  Sewing  have  run  together 
into  Living. 

Those  girls,  before  they  are  graduated,  will  have 
had  four  years  of  Handwork  in  various  materials, 
including  clay.  But  they  will  also  have  had  two  years 
of  back-grounding  in  Applied  Art.  And,  for  further 
back-grounding,  they  will  have  had  a  year  of  Euro- 
pean Art  History  and  a  half  year  of  American  Art 
History. 

When  they  come  to  make  their  graduation  dresses 
in  one  of  the  school  sewing  rooms,  they  will  have  ac- 
quired something  besides  a  familiarity  with  the  needle 
and  other  tools  of  handicraft. 

Nevertheless  that  something  is  something  which 
most  of  them,  being  normal  human  beings,  would 
never  have  acquired  to  any  such  degree  except 
through  that  very  familiarity  with  the  needle  and 
other  tools  of  handicraft. 

"No    impression    without    expression,"   said    the      fiiifowing"^ 
great  psychologist,  William  James.  impression 

Those  girls  have  taken  in  impressions  of  alleged 
beauty.  They  have  given  forth  expressions  of  at- 
tempted beauty.  They  have  completed  the  psycho- 
logical circuit.  They  have  lived  beauty.  They  have 
therefore  (within  the  limitations  of  their  individual 
temperaments)  changed  beauty  from  an  external  ob- 
ject of  admiration  to  an  abiding  function  and  need  of 
their  nature. 

Wall  paper,  hats,  waists,  ribbons,  towels,  vases, 
chairs,  mantelpieces,  rugs,  lamps,  gas  fixtures,  tables, 
curtains,  all  material  equipment  of  daily  life,  the 
things  which  we  see  most,  will  move  toward  greater 


64    THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 


Science  issues 
into  living 
■through 
cooking 


and  greater  beauty  in  the  homes  of  all  the  people  un- 
der the  effective  demand  of  graduates  of  just  such 
courses  of  study  as  are  offered  by  the  Cleveland  Tech. 

A  comparison  of  the  pottery  displayed  for  sale  in 
the  shops  frequented  by  the  mothers  of  the  Tech  girls 
with  the  pottery  manufactured  by  the  Tech  girls 
themselves,  is  an  astonishing  proof  of  the  advance  in 
taste  which  can  be  made  in  a  few  years.  "When  that 
advance  is  translated,  as  it  will  be,  into  a  commercial 
demand,  the  change  in  the  character  of  the  shop  win- 
dow displays  will  be  equally  astonishing. 

That  change  is  already  begun  and  has  been  caused, 
in  no  small  part,  by  the  practical  art  work  already  in- 
troduced into  so  many  American  elementaiy  and 
secondary  schools. 

Sara  A.  Burstall,  an  English  woman,  head  mis- 
tress of  the  Manchester  High  School  for  Girls,  in  her 
book  called  "Impressions  of  American  Education  in 
1908"  speaks  of  the  relation  between  the  art  courses 
and  popular  tastes.  ' '  One  is  not  surprised, ' '  says  she, 
"at  the  artistic  arrangement  of  American  homes  of 
a  modest  t3'pe  when  one  sees  in  school  after  school 
the  Avay  that  the  application  of  art  to  the  home  is 
taught:  America  is  indeed  rapidly  becoming,  so  far 
as  her  women  are  concerned,  an  artistic  nation." 

But  let's  leave  the  Dressmaking  and  the  Millinery 
and  the  Pottery,  and  the  whole  general  field  of  Domes- 
tic Art  and  go  into  the  Domestic  Science  laboratory. 

Just  as  Se\ving  is  the  main  channel  through  which 
the  Arts  issue  into  Living  for  the  girls  of  the  Tech,  so 
Cooking  is  the  main  channel  through  which  that  same 
transformation  is  accomplished  for  the  sciences. 

The  girl  who  takes  a  "general  course"  has  four 
years  of  Cooking,  just  as  she  has  four  years  of  Sew- 
ing. 


THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME    60 

In  the  last  two  years,  however,  the  work  in  the 
Domestic  Science  laboratory  expands  beyond  Cook- 
ing to  include  such  subjects  as  Laundry,  and  Home 
Nursing  and  Household  Sanitation,  and  Household 
Management,  and  Household  Accounts.^ 

But  Laundry  (which  includes  the  making  of  soap 
'  and  the  removing  of  stains)  takes  us  back  to  Chemis- 
try. And  Home  Nursing  and  Household  Sanitation 
takes  us  back  to  the  sciences  underlying  public  and 
I  personal  Hygiene.    And  Household  Management  and 
Household  Accounts  take  us  back  to  ]Mathematics. 

The  work  of  the  last  two  years,  therefore,  even 
that  part  of  it  which  isn't  Cooking,  is  just  as  much 
Domestic  Science  as  was  the  straight  Cooking  of  the 
first  two  years. 

That  straight  Cooking!  To  what  extent  is  it 
straight  Cooking?    To  what  extent  is  it  science f 

To  this  extent: 

At  a  certain  time  in  the  first  year's  work  (one 
illustration  will  suffice)  there  is  much  boiling  and 
steaming  of  cereals.  But  at  that  same  time  there  is 
an  examining  of  grains  of  starch  under  the  micro- 
scope; there  is  a  testing  of  potatoes  and  rice,  and 
eggs  and  meat  with  tincture  of  iodine  for  the  pres- 
ence, or  absence,  of  starch;  there  is  an  inquiring  by 
experiment  into  the  change  from  starch  to  sugar  ac- 
complished by  the  digestive  juices. 

The  girl  who  has  thus  seen  the  facts  of  Chemistry      Life  purposes 
merged  into  the  facts  of  daily  living,  who  has  thus      taterMt"""^ 
got  a  glimpse  into  the  life  purposes  of  Chemistry,  is 
in  a  fair  way  to  want  to  learn  some  Chemistry. 

We  haven't  yet  realized  to  what  a  degree  life  pur- 
poses are  necessary  in  order  to  arouse  interest  and 
to  create  energy  among  the  boys  and  girls  and  young 
men  and  young  women  in  all  the  successive  strata  of 
the  school  system.    But  we  are  beginning. 


66     THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 


Professional 
and 

technical 
BCbools 


Compositions 
and  life 
purposes 


President  Emeritus  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  lias  al- 
ready on  several  occasions,  pertinently  contrasted  the 
young  men  in  the  colleges  with  the  young  men  in  the 
professional  schools.  The  young  men  in  the  class- 
rooms of  the  academic  colleges  are  by  comparison 
listless  and  indifferent.  The  young  men  in  the  pro- 
fessional schools  of  law,  of  medicine,  of  engineering, 
or  of  any  other  life  task,  are  by  comparison  alert 
and  interested.  The  former  think  they  are  just  study- 
ing.   The  latter  know  they  are  living. 

A  vision  of  life  purjjoses  would  enliven  Mathe- 
matics for  the  college  boy.  It  was  a  vision  of  life 
purposes  that  enlivened  that  study  for  Abraham  Lin- 
coln— it  wasn't  just  Mathematics  itself.  When,  in 
his  young  manhood,  unguided  save  by  the  flashes 
which  his  own  genius  threw  across  the  dark  sky  of 
his  surroundings,  Lincoln  found  and  read  Euclid,  he 
didn't  say:  "Now  I've  acquired  knowledge.  Now  I'm 
learned.  Now  I'm  educated."  His  comment  was 
quite  different.  Thinking  of  the  political  disputes 
to  which  he  had  devoted  himself;  thinking  of  the 
controversies  of  fact  and  of  logic  to  which  his  voca- 
tion carried  him ;  thinking  of  his  trade,  he  said : ' '  Now 
I  know  what  an  argument  is.  Now  I  understand  when 
a  proposition  is  proved."  Lincoln  was  capable  of 
seeing  the  relationship  between  Euclid  and  his  own 
character  and  destiny.  Life  purposes  were  not  taught, 
they  were  revealed  to  him.  But  he  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  What  w^as  done  for  him  })y  nature  has  to 
be  done  for  others  by  artifice. 

Schools  like  the  Cleveland  Tech  try  to  do  it.  They 
try  to  hold  life  purposes  before  their  pupils,  so  far 
as  possible,  every  day  in  every  study. 

Among  the  themes  in  English  composition  set  in 
the  Cleveland  Technical  High  School  for  the  Girls, 


THE  SCPIOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME     67 

many  visitors  might  be  amused  to  find  these :  ' '  Pottery 
Theme  :  How  to  Make  a  Tile."  "Domestic  Art  Theme : 
The  Sewing  Bag,  Materials,  Cutting,  Making."  "Do- 
mestic Science  Them.e :  A  Comparison  of  the  Prepara- 
tion of  Rennet  Custard  with  the  Digestion  of  Milk." 

The  newspaper  or  magazine  editor,  observing 
these  themes,  might  be  amused;  but  he  would  ap- 
prove. He  knows  that  it  is  easier  today  to  find  a 
hundred  men  and  women  who  can  write  good  English 
about  the  influence  of  Shakespeare  on  Milton  than 
it  is  to  find  one  man  or  woman  who  can  vn:'ite  good 
English  about  a  fire,  or  a  wedding,  or  a  muffin,  or 
an  election.  He  will  therefore  rejoice  when  he  sees 
young  people  being  trained  to  bring  the  resources  of 
the  English  language  to  bear  on  those  matters  which 
most  need  to  be  enriched  by  imagination,  refined  by 
correct  expression,  irradiated  by  a  light  from  afar. 

That  light  from  afar  is  not  neglected.  The  boys 
and  girls  in  the  Cleveland  Technical  High  School 
read  Shakespeare 's  " Macbeth "  and  Arnold's  "Sohrab 
and  Rustum"  and  other  masterpieces.  But  they  are 
also  encouraged  to  take  the  Muses  of  verse  and  of 
prose  by  the  hand  and  lead  them  down  out  of  the 
temple  into  the  workshop,  the  basketball  field,  the 
millinery  store  and  the  kitchen. 

But  what  has  this  kind  of  English  teaching  to  do 
-with,  the  teaching  of  Domestic  Science  and  Art? 
Everything.  The  Domestic-Science-and-Art  move- 
ment is  only  a  part  of  a  larger  educational  movement. 
That  larger  educational  movement  is  only  part  of  a 
still  larger  world-thought  movement.  And  that  larger 
world-thought  movement  has  for  its  driving  force  a 
belief  in  the  importance,  the  beauty,  the  grandeur  of 
common  things. 


68  THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 


Tie  The  fact  is  that  we  might  as  well  go  straight  at 

philosophy  „  ,   .  -^    ,  ^  •     j.  j 

of  education  the  philosophy  of  our  subject,  it  s  a  subject  as  deep 
as  any  could  be.  "How  shall  our  daughters  be  edu- 
cated?" If  we  don't  get  the  right  philosophy  of  it, 
we  shall  never  arrive  at  being  really  right  in  practice. 
■\Ve  shall  be  contented  with  some  such  incidental,  al- 
most irrelevant  reform  as  the  employment  of  a  seam- 
stress to  teach  the  girls  a  few  stitches,  and  the  em- 
ployment of  a  cook  to  teach  them  a  few  dishes,  dur- 
ing a  few  "practical"  hours  inserted  into  an  other- 
wise undisturbed  "cultural"  school-day.  "Whereas 
the  spirit  of  this  new  movement,  in  education  as  well 
as  everj-where  else,  demands  that  "practical"  and 
"cultural"  shall  cease  to  be  separate  compartments 
in  a  box  and  shall  become  tT\-in  poles  in  a  battery  con- 
nected by  a  continuous  life  current. 

The  fact  that  the  "new"  education  in  enlarging 
the  little  matters  of  daily  living,  and  in  therefore  in- 
cidentally magnifying  the  whole  realm  of  woman's 
home  work,  is  not  being  eccentric  and  "faddy,"  but 
is,  on  the  contrary',  showing  itself  to  be  in  harmony 
with  the  controlling  forces  of  the  age — this  fact  could 
be  proved  from  almost  any  field  of  human  endeavor. 

In  the  Cleveland  Technical  High  School,  the  boys 
and  girls  are  segregated  from  each  other  in  class- 
room work.  It's  not  on  the  theory  of  sex  danger.  It's 
on  the  basis  of  a  difference  between  the  purposes 
which  can  be  best  used  to  vitalize  study  for  the  boys 
and  the  purposes  which  can  be  best  used  to  vitalize 
study  for  the  girls. 

The  boys,  headed  toward  the  shop,  have  their 
Chemistry  and  their  Mathematics  and  their  other 
academic  studies  animated  by  the  applications  which 
are  going  to  take  place  in  the  shop.  The  girls,  who, 
whether  they  go  to  work  or  stay  at  home,  vnR  be 


Eeason    for 
segregation 
in  Cleveland 
schools 


THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME     69 

concerned  largely  with  foods  and  fabrics,  have  their 
Chemistry  and  Mathematics  and  other  academic 
studies  animated  by  the  applications  which  are  going 
to  take  place  in  foods  and  fabrics. 

Manifestly,  however,  an  exceptional  boy  might 
want  to  be  a  nutrition  expert  and  an  exceptional  girl 
I  might  want  to  be  a  metallurgist.  In  such  cases  the 
boy  would  logically  take  "girls'  "  chemistry,  and 
the  girl  (as  some  girls  do)  would  logically  take 
"boys'  "  chemistry.  Each  would  take  the  chemistry 
which  corresponded  to  the  purpose  held  in  mind. 

When  vou  see  how  thoroughly  colored  by  domestic      p°^  °f 

T^i        •    1  teachers 

science  and  art  the  Chemistry,  and  the  Physiology,  needed 
and  the  ]\Iathematics,  and  the  History,  and  the  Eng- 
lish, and  the  other  "academic"  studies  of  a  school 
may  be,  you  cease  to  want  just  a  cooking  teacher,  or 
just  a  sewing  teacher  for  the  school  in  j^our  neighbor- 
hood. You  begin  to  see  that  the  teacher  of  cooking 
and  the  teacher  of  sewing  ought  to  be  able  to  co- 
operate with  the  teachers  of  the  "academic"  studies. 
You  begin  to  see  that,  aside  from  that  co-operation, 
the  teacher  of  cooking  should  have  certain  Sciences  and 
the  teacher  of  sewing  should  have  certain  Arts,  be- 
cause it  is  in  their  class-rooms  that  for  most  young 
people  the  Sciences  and  the  Arts  can  be  most  made  to 
live. 

Such  are  the  cooking  and  sewing  teachers  needed. 
And  they  are  being  trained.  In  Drexel  Institute  in 
Philadelphia,  in  Pratt  Institute  in  Brooklyn,  in  Teach- 
ers College  in  New  York,  in  Stout  Institute  in  Me- 
nomonie.  Wis.,  in  the  home  economics  departments  of 
universities  like  Chicago  and  Illinois — in  these  and 
other  places  several  thousand  young  women  are  tak- 
ing two,  three,  four  years  of  preparation  to  be — what  ? 
Teachers  of  cooking  and  sewing?    Yes,  indeed.    But 


70    THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 

more.     To  those  young  women,  as  much  as  to  any 
women  or  men  in  the  whole  educational  system,  is 
given  the  chance  to  be  Interpreters  of  Life. 
Spread  of  How  fast  it  grows !     In  the  State  of  Illinois,  in 

training         |  °  .  ' 

for  life  /  the  year  1908,  there  were  forty-two  high  schools  in 
'  which  some  phase  of  domestic  science  or  of  domestic 
art  was  taught.  Last  year,  just  two  years  later,  there 
were  seventy-one ! 

There  are  thirteen  Illinois  high  schools  in  which 
the  work  in  domestic  science  and  art  is  credited  at 
the  State  university.  Girls  from  those  high  schools, 
when  they  go  to  the  university,  can  offer  their  do- 
mestic science  and  art  work  as  one  of  the  fifteen 
"units"  of  work  which  they  have  to  offer  for  admis- 
sion to  the  freshman  class. 

This  "cosmopolitan"  policy  is  being  illustrated  in 
Chicago.  In  Chicago  the  regular  high  schools  have 
just  begun  to  offer  a  certain  combination  of  studies 
extending  through  four  years,  to  which  the  title 
"Household  Arts  Course"  is  given.  It  is  a  course 
made  up   as  follows: 

English  and  Art  are  studied  through  all  four 
years ;  Physiology  and  Botany  are  studied  in  the  first 
year;  Chemistry  in  the  second;  Physics  in  the  third; 
and  United  States  History  and  Civics  in  the  fourth. 
These  studies  will  be  taught  by  the  regular  "aca- 
demic" teachers.  Then,  paralleling  the  "academic" 
studies,  there  will  be,  in  each  of  the  four  years,  an 
eight  hours  a  Aveek  "home"  study,  either  Textiles  or 
Domestic   Science. 

"We  have  confined  ourselves  in  this  article  to  high 
schools.  We  wish  we  had  time  to  go  into  other  fields. 
We  wish  we  had  time  to  speak  of  the  extent  to  which 
American  colleges  and  universities  are  recognizing 
"home"  studies,  not  only  by  accepting  them  for  en- 


THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME     71 

trance,  but  by  installing  them  in  their  own  curricula 
as  college  grade  studies  to  be  pursued  during  the 
college  course.  And  we  wish  we  had  time  to  go  all 
the  way  down  from  the  universities  to  the  elementary 
schools  and  speak  of  the  extent  to  which  in  many  of 
those  schools  the  activities  of  home  life  are  being  laid 

Ihold  of,  not  to  displace,  but  to  enliven  and  strengthen 
the  three  R's.  We  could  show  that  the  principles 
which  have  made  their  way  into  the  Cleveland  Tech 
are  also  making  their  way,  by  various  routes  and  in 
various  forms,  into  every  level  of  the  educational 
fabric. 

We  have  kept  to  the  high  school  level,  because  we      ^ifninl^^or^^ 
wanted  this  article  to  have  the  greatest  possible  mean-      life 
ing  for  mothers  and  fathers.     The  high  school  age 
.  is  the  age  at  which  the  life  purposes  of  the  future 
I  woman  first  become  really  clearly  defined.    It  is  there- 
\  fore  the  period  during  which  her  father  and  mother 
must  think  most  definitely  about  the  sort  of  training 
they  want  her  to  have. 

What  sort  of  training  is  it,  in  the  case  of  most 
mothers  and  fathers? 

Well,  they  want  her  to  have  the  best  ''education" 
possible.  That's  what  they  say.  And  that's  what 
they  mean,  almost  all  Americans.  Of  course,  in  a 
general  way,  they  want  her  to  be  able  to  cook  and 
to  sew.  But  they  are  not  crazy  about  that.  Not 
half  so  crazy  about  it  as  the  girl 's  husband  may  some 
time  be.  The  argument  for  teaching  a  girl  to  cook  and 
to  sew  is  based  more  on  what  her  future  husband 
1  and  children  may  need  than  on  what  her  parents 
want.  Under  modern  conditions  of  life  and  of  thought 
there  is  enough  housekeeping  to  keep  mother  pretty 
busy.  But  not  enough  to  bother  Agnes  about.  And 
what  mother  and  father  want,  indomitably  want,  de- 


72    THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME 

fiantly  want,  for  Agnes  is  culture.  Culture,  culture. 
And  that  ambition  on  the  part  of  mother  and  fatlier, 
though  it  leads  to  many  tragedies,  is  one  of  the  great- 
est and  noblest  things  in  American  life.  It's  why 
we've  said  so  much  about  culture  in  this  article.  And 
it 's  why  we  say  now : 
a  b^-p?oduct  '^  Real  culture,  like  real  happiness,  is  a  by-product. 
It  was  never  yet  caught  by  straight  pursuit.  The 
girl  who  deliberately  singles  out  happiness  for  a  pur- 
suit may  be  frivolous,  but  she  won't  be  happy.  The 
girl  who  deliberately  singles  out  culture  for  a  pursuit 
may  be  a  culturette,  ' '  the  plague  of  her  husband,  her 
children,  her  family  and  her  servants,"  but  she  won't 
be  a  really  cultivated  woman  in  the  broadest,  most 
human  sense  of  the  word.  Culture,  like  happiness, 
I  comes  in  association  with  action.  Your  Agnes,  our 
Mary,  all  the  little  girls  just  through  grade  school, 
just  starting  into  high  school,  are  beginning  now  to 
grow  into  the  purposes  of  adult  life.  Let's  find  those 
purposes.  They  are  really  Agnes 's  human  meaning. 
They're  the  core  of  her  existence.  What  is  she  go- 
ing to  do  and  be  when  she's  a  woman?  Let's  study 
those  purposes.  And  then  let's  take  the  accumulated 
knowledges  and  beauties  of  the  world's  history,  its 
capital  Science  and  its  Art,  and  by  intimately  as- 
sociating them  with  those  purposes  throughout  the 
high  school  course,  make  them  not  merely  coat  and 
varnish  Agnes,  but  enter  into  her  very  soul. 

This  article,  therefore,  is  not  an  advocacy  merely 
of  domestic  science.  It  is  an  advocacy  of  a  deeper 
culture,  a  culture  which,  reaching  the  soul,  will  abide 
and  dominate.  We  have  advocated  domestic  science 
because  home  work  is  a  life  purpose.  But  there  are 
other  life  purposes  besides  home  work,  even  for 
/    girls. 


THE  SCHOOL  PREPARES  FOR  THE  HOME    73 

One  of  those  other  life  purposes  is  self  support. 
"We  shall  not  speak  about  the  urgent  importance  of 
that  purpose.  We  shall  here  only  mention  the  way  in 
which  the  existence  of  that  purpose  is  recognized  in 
a  certain  school. 

They  have  in  Boston  a  school  called  the  Girls'      l^^^^'oi^j^^ 
High  School  of  Practical  Arts.     You  might  suppose     Jj*g<="'=*^ 
that  it  was  dedicated  exclusively  to  preparing  for  the 
Home.    But  it  isn't.     It  prepares  both  for  home  life 
and  for  self  support. 

In  the  first  year  in  that  school  the  girls  all  take 
the  same  studies.  But  in  the  second,  third  and  fourth 
years,  in  addition  to  taking  certain  studies  which 
are  required  of  all  of  them  alike,  they  must  choose 
between  a  special  "Dressmaking  Course,"  a  special 
"Millinery  Course,"  and  a  special  "Household 
Science  Course."  In  other  words,  they  must  begin  to 
specialize  in  a  certain  life  purpose. 

The  school  says  that  "The  course  in  Household 
Science  is  offered  to  girls  who  desire  to  make  an  in- 
telligent study  of  the  home  from  the  standpoints  of 
sanitation,  furnishing,  decoration  and  care."  It  says 
that  "the  Dressmaking  and  Millinery  Courses  aim  to 
give  ideals,  taste  and  skill,  which  shall  have  money 
earning  value  for  the  possessor." 

But  won't  the  girl  who  becomes  a  milliner  or  a 
dressmaker  become  later  the  manager  of  a  home? 
And  may  not  the  girl  w^ho  takes  ' '  household  science ' '  , 

and  expects  to  go  straight  back  to  a  nice  home  find 
herself  obliged  by  some  financial  disaster  to  earn  her 
own  living  in  a  trade  for  which  she  isn't  prepared? 

Isn't  there,  or  is  there,  an  "irreconcilable"  con- 
flict here,  in  education  as  in  life  ? 


74  BIBLIOGRAPHY    OF  FAMILY  LIFE 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I 

Women  and  Higher  Education 

Edited  by  Anna  C.  Brackett 

(An  epitome  of  the  struggle  of  those  who  secured  this 
education.  Should  be  read  by  every  mother  and 
daughter. ) 

Home  and  School  for  Social  Living Heniy  Cope 

(Pamphlet.) 

Children  of  Good  Fortune C.  Hanford  Henderson 

Child  Welfare  Magazine 

(Contains  accounts  of  work  accomplished,  work  to  be 
done  and  how  to  do  it,  and  articles  most  useful  to 
parents.) 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 


QUOTATIONS 

"We  have  been  long  expecting  that  you  would  tell  us 
something  about  the  family  life  of  your  citizens — how  they 
will  bring  children  uito  the  world  and  rear  them  when  they 
have  arrived  — for  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  right  or 
wrong  management  of  such  matters  will  have  a  great  and 
paramount  influence  on  the  State  for  good  or  evil." — Plato. 

"On  observing  what  energies  are  expended  by  father 
and  mother  to  attaua  worldly  successes  and  fulfill  social 
ambition,  we  are  remmded  how  relatively  small  is  the 
space  occupied  by  their  ambition  to  make  their  descendants 
physically,  morally  and  intellectually  superior.  Yet  this 
is  the  ambition  which  will  replace  those  they  now  so  eagerly 
pursue,  and  which,  mstead  of  perpetual  disappointments, 
will  bring  permanent  satisfaction." — Herbert  Spencer. 

"The  query  of  a  humorist,  why  he  should  do  anything 
for  posterity,  since  posterity  had  done  nothing  for  him, 
set  me  thinking  in  my  early  youth  in  the  most  serious  way. 
I  felt  that  posterity  had  done  much  for  its  forefathers. 
It  had  given  them  an  infinite  horizon  for  the  future  beyond 
the  bounds  of  then*  daily  effort.  Through  our  fathers, 
without  our  will  and  without  choice  we  are  given  a  destiny 
which  controls  the  deepest  foundations  of  our  being. 
Through  our  posterity,  which  we  ourselves  create,  we  can 
in  a  certain  measure,  as  free  bemgs,  determine  the  futiu'e 
destiny  of  the  human  race."— Ellen  Key. 

"More  and  more  must  this  necessity  for  preparation 
be  put  before  our  childi'en ;  more  and  more  must  they  be 
fired  with  an  ambition  to  make  their  years  of  youth  count 
for  this  great  end,  more  and  more  made  to  realize  their 
inseparable  connection  with  the  generations  before  and 
after  them,  and  their  gift  of  character  to  those  who  will 
call  them  ancestors." — Emma  F.  A.  Drake. 

"It  is  time  \-o  teach  the  man  the  importance  of  his 
chastity  to   the   family,   state,  nation.     The  average  man, 

Vol.   1—6  "^"^ 


78  QUOTATIONS 

says  Hepburn,  in  his  heart,  does  not  acknowledge  to  himself 
that  there  is  any  competent  reason  why  he  should  control 
his  passion  beyond  the  sentimental  idea  of  the  justice  of 
men's  remaining  chaste  if  they  require  it  of  women.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  shown  to  the  man  that  there  is  also 
an  important  racial  reason  for  him  to  abandon  promiscuous 
life. 

"If  it  is  shown  to  the  young  man,  at  a  time  when  his 
heart  and  mind  are  still  in  thrall  of  the  early  and  eternal 
poetry  of  the  race,  that  it  is  as  important  to  humanity  that 
he  should  be  chaste  as  it  is  for  the  woman  to  be  pure,  then 
he  will  refrain  from  indulgence."— J?.  S.  Talmey. 

"It  should  be  impressed  on  every  boy  that  every  girl 
is  somebody's  daughter  and  usually  somebody's  sister,  and 
that  it  is  his  sacred  duty  to  afford  her  the  same  respect  and 
protection  which  he  would  expect  from  another  boy  toward 
his  sister." — Joint  Committee  Report. 

"Out  of  our  highest  scholarship  men,  only  a  very  small 
percentage  (about  five)  use  tobacco,  while  of  the  men  who 
do  not  get  appointments  over  sixty  per  cent  are  tobacco 
users.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  mental  decrepitude 
follows  the  use  of  tobacco,  for  we  may  read  the  results  m 
another  way,  viz :  the  kind  of  mind  that  pennits  its 
possessor  to  become  addicted  to  a  habit  that  is  primarily 
offensive  and  deteriorating  is  the  kind  of  mind  that  would 
be  graded  low  in  general  intellectual  tests."— Dr.  Seaver 
of  Yale. 

.  "The  greatest  social  privilege  women  can  have  is  to  be 
/the  chief  agent  in  the  improvement  of  the  race,  and  through 
/it  the  regeneration  of  society  itself.  .  .  .  Being  pos- 
sible mothers,  it  is  necessary,  if  the  race  and  society  are 
to  be  improved,  that  women  shall  acquire  the  highest 
physical,  intellectual  and  moral  education  of  which  they 
are  capable,  and  if  they  require  the  same  qualities  in  their 
husbands,  their  problem  is  solved."— Holb rook. 

"Self  development  is  an  aim  of  all,  an  aim  which  will 


QUOTATIONS  79 

make  all  stronger  ana  braver,  and  wiser  and  better.     It 
will  make  each,  in  the  end,  more  helpful  to  humanity.     To 
be  sound  in  mind   and  limb,  to  be  healthy  of  body  and 
mind;  to  be  educated,  to  be  emancipated,  to  be  free,  to  be 
beautiful— these  things  are  ends  toward  which  all  should 
strive,  and  by  attaining  which  all  are  happier  in  themselves, 
and  more  useful  to  others.     ...     To  prepare  ourselves 
for  paternity  and  maternity,  by  making  ourselves  as  vigor- 
ous and  healthful  as  we  can  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  all  our 
children  unborn  and  to  one  another.     .      .      .     And  what 
is  true  of   the  body   corporeal   is   true   also   of  the  body 
spiritual,  intellectual  and  esthetic.     .      .      .     "We  shall  ex- 
pect in  the  future  a  purer  and  timer  relation  between  father 
and  mother,  between  parent  and  child.     We  shall  expect 
some   sanctity   to    attach   to   the    idea   of   paternity,   some 
thought  and  care  to  be  given  to  motherhood.     We  will  not 
admit  that  the  chance  miion  of  two  unfit  persons,  who  ought 
never  to  have  made  themselves  parents  at  all,  or  ought  never 
to  have  made  themselves  parents  with  one  another,  can  be 
rendered  holy  and  harmless  by  the  hands  of  a  priest  ex- 
tended  to   bless  a  bought   love,   or   a  bargain   of  impure 
marriage.     In  one  word,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  race,  we  shall  evolve  the  totally  new  idea  of  responsi- 
bility in  parentage.     And  as  part  of  this  responsibility  we 
shall  include  the  two  antithetical,  but  correlative,  doctrines 
of  a  moral  abstinence  from  fatherhood  and  motherhood  on 
the  part  ofthe  unfit,  and  a  moraTobligation  to  fatherhood 
and  motherhood  on  the  part  of  the  noblest,  the  purest,  the 
sanest,  the  healthiest,  the  most  able  amongus."— Grant  Allen 
in  "New  Hedonism." 


VII 


DO  WE  NEED  EDUCATION  FOR  PARENT- 
HOOD? 

MARY  HARMON  WEEKS 
Vice-President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers 

ONG  years  ago,  when  Jane  Addams  was  still 
explaining  Hull  House  to  those  to  whom  a  so- 
^    cial  settlement  was  a  new,  strange,  and  untried 
dream,  some  one  asked  her  if  she  thought  that 
child  training  should  be  the  central  pivot  in  the  work 
of  the  world.     To  which  she  replied,  "Oh,  we  do  so 
1  much  for  the  children !     Let  us  do  something  for  the 
I  drab  lives  of  their  fathers  and  mothers. ' '    In  reading 
a  report  of  a  much  later  talk  by  Miss  Addams,   I 
found  her  saying,  "We  can  do  comparatively  little 
'  for  the  lives  of  adults.     Let  us  begin  with  the  chil- 
dren." 

We  all  come  back  to  that  sooner  or  later,  do  we 
/not?  Everything  else  seems  mere  cobbling  of  the 
effects  of  wrong  thinking,  wrong  living,  wrong  speak- 
ing, wrong  doing.  Everything  else  seems  pure  tem- 
porizing with  results.  Because  the  beginnings  of  life 
were  wrong,  we  have  all  our  social  problems.  Little 
wonder  that  we  long  to  have  things  begin  all  over 
again,  with  right  parenthood,  right  physical  care, 
right  training,  and  so  prevent  the  social  wreckage 
vrhich  hampers  every  step  toward  regeneration.J  Do 
we  not  send  a  visiting  housekeeper  into  the  poorly 
kept  homes  of  a  district,  only  to  end  in  a  practical 
housekeeping  center  for  the  children,  through  whom 

81 


Social 

problems  lead 
always  to 
children 


82  EDUCATING  PARENTS 

alone  can  the  care  of  the  home  be  reconstructed?  Do 
we  not  employ  a  visiting  nurse  to  direct  the  home 
care  of  the  sick,  and  does  she  not  come  away  from 
such  a  home  with  a  sense  of  satisfaction  when  she 
has  been  able  to  give  her  instructions  to  the  plastic 
mind  of  some  child  of  the  house  rather  than  to  the 
habit-ridden  grown  people?  Have  we  not  often 
longed  to  rid  other  homes,  in  which  visiting  house- 
keepers and  nurses  would  be  deemed  an  intrusion,  of 
the  short-sighted,  incompetent,  ruinous  leadership  of 
uneducated  parenthood,  and  start  the  children  fairly 
and  squarely  with  a  good  chance  to  do  their  best? 

Mother  or    .       Yet  SO  inscrutable  are  the  movements  of  divine 
'  love,  that  even  a  very  poor  home  is  better  for  the 
child  than  no  home,  and  it  is  only  in  very  bad  mo- 
ments of  discouragement,  that  we  allow  •  ourselves  to 
tentatively  suggest  that  no  parents  would  be  better 
I  than  bad  ones.     "We  know  that  the  coddling  love  of 
"  even  a  poorly  trained  mother  is  necessary  to  the  phys- 
ical well  being  of  her  child,  and  that  for  the  sake  of 
it,  the  child  may  well  endure  much  ill  treatment,  de- 
privation and  even  cruelty  in  the  home. 

with'l;?^  Since  we  cannot  with  safety  to  the  democracy  of 

America  destroy  the  integrity  of  the  home,  since  we 
cannot  destroy  it  with  safety  to  the  physical  well 
being  of  the  child,  how  can  we  begin  with  the  children 
without  beginning  with  the  grownups;  not  to  change 
their  hard  and  fast  habits,  not  to  make  them  over,  but 
\to  induce  them  to  give  to  the  second  generation  a 
^  better  parenthood  ?  The  weakest  father  longs  to  pro- 
vide something  better  for  his  children  than  he  has 
known.  The  most  trifling  mother  wishes  for  sons 
and  daughters,  better  conditions  than  have  fallen  to 
her  lot.  Parents  in  every  grade  of  society,  while  re- 
.fusing  to  readjust  their  own  lives  to  any  ideal  scale 


I 


children  we 
must   begin 
with  the 
grown-ups 


EDUCATING  PARENTS 


83 


of  right  living,  will  unconsciously,  through  love  of 
their  little  ones,  make  a  thousand  adaptations  and 
sacrifices  to  give  their  children  larger  opportunities 
for  happiness  than  they  themselves  have  had. 
'^  But  parents  must  realize  the  importance  of  direct 
training  for  parenthood.  They  must  come  into  a  full 
comprehension  of  a  new  sort  of  responsibility — a  re- 
sponsibility not  only  for  right  training,  but  for  the 
physical  mould,  the  inherited  traits,  the  spiritual  ten- 
dencies which  constitute  the  child.  It  is  the  larger 
opportunity  for  a  knowledge  of  nature's  laws  of 
transmission,  and  a  training  for  the  duty  such  knowl- 
edge involves,  which  parents  can  give  to  the  next 
generation.  They  must  train  the  child  of  today  to  be 
:^he  parent  of  tomorrow. 

Education  for  parenthood  is  a  comparatively  new 
thought,  but  when  its  true  prophet  arises,  crying  in 
the  language  of  the  people  that  the  promise  of  hap- 
piness lies  here,  every  parent  will  desire  it  for  his 
children,  and  will  do  his  best,  intelligently  or  unintel- 
ligently  according  to  his  light,  to  start  his  sons  and 
daughters  on  the  road  toward  the  new  goal. 

Froebel  gave  us  the  talisman  for  child  study  when 
he  invited  us  to  live  with  the  children.     By  living 
with  them  we  have  learned  to  really  know  them.  The 
/ ,  United  States  may  be  said  to  be  obsessed  with  the 
'  idea  of  child  welfare.    But  the  thought  of  living  for 
'  children  in  the  larger  sense  of  so  directing  one 's  whole 
I  life  as  a  preparation  for  right  parenthood  has  yet  to 
I  come  into  its  own.  1  A  considerable  part  of  the  world 
still  believes  tharTTvery  child  is  born  with  a  card  of 
instructions    labeled   "mx)ther   instincts"    and   wax- 
ranted  to  teach  the  most  immature  and  inexperienced 
mother  how  to  train  body  and  soul  for  their  best  life 
work.     Reformatories,  asylums,  penitentiaries  and  all 


Need   of 
direct 

training  for 
parenthood 


Living  for 
children  a 
new  thought 


84  EDUCATING  PARENTS 

I   the  paraphernalia  for  caring  for  humanity's  waste 
product  stand  like   glaring  headlines  to  the  inade- 
I  quacy  of  mother  instincts.     The  costs  of  maintain- 
ing these  receptacles  for  castaways  grows  apace,  and 
a  large  part  of  modern  social  effort  is  a  struggle  to 
undo  the  mistakes  of  parents.     On  every  hand  we 
are  facing,  without  really  seeing,  proofs  that  parent- 
hood does  not  make  wise  parents.    We  make  a  fetish 
of  education ;  but  in  our  system  of  public  schools,  the 
crucial  education  for  parenthood  has  no  place.     Yet 
to  arrest  the  enormous  social  and  financial  waste  which 
results  from  this  omission,  we  need  educated  parents. 
Laws  for    j^-'-ODivine  Providence  has  established  certain  laws  for 
parenthood     parenthood,  physical,  mental  and  moral.    Their  viola- 
tion, whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  injures  future 
generations,  burdens  society,    and    hinders    civiliza- 
tion.   That,  as  individuals,  we  suffer  from  violations 
-  of  these  laws  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation, 
'  is  the  punishment  of  our  ignorance,  as  surely  as  of 
our  intentional  guilt.    ''Our  first  duty  as  a  people  is 
to  search  out  these  laws,  our  next  to  provide  their 
teachers,   and  our  third  and  individual  duty  is  to 
obey  the  laws, ' '  to  the  end  that  our  children 's  children 
to  the  third  and  fourth  generation  may  rise  up  and 
call  us  blessed. 
Creating  *'We  cannot  have  right  marriages  until  standards 

pa^renthood  are  SO  formed  that  only  a  wholesome  person  and 
character  will  attract  love.  We  cannot  have  good 
parenthood  unless  the  foundations  are  laid  long  be- 
fore the  event,  before  errors  are  committed  and  duties 
omitted  in  childhood  and  youth." 

If  to  make  a  good  man,  we  must  begin  with  his 
grandfather,  let  us  begin  with  the  grandfathers  of 
the  third  generation  to  come,  who  are  now  ready  to 
our  hands. 


EDUCATING  PARENTS  85 

Theodore  Roosevelt  said,  "No  Christian  and  civil-  fo^plren^"*^ 
,  ized  community  can  afford  to  show  a  happy-go-lucky  iiood 
lack  of  concern  for  the  youth  of  today;  for,  if  so, 
the  community  will  have  to  pay  a  terrible  penalty  of 
financial  burden  and  social  degradation  in  the  tomor- 
row. There  should  be  severe  child  labor  and  factory 
inspection  laws.  It  is  very  undesirable  that  women 
should  work  in  factories.  The  prime  duty  of  the 
man  is  to  work,  to  be  the  breadwinner;  the  prime 
Iduty  of  the  woman  is  to  be  a  mother,  the  housewife. 
All  questions  of  finance  sink  into  utter  insignificance 
when  compared  with  the  tremendous,  the  vital  im- 
portance of  trying  to  shape  conditions  so  that  these 
two  duties  of  the  man  and  of  the  woman  can  be  ful- 
filled under  reasonably  favorable  circumstances.  If 
a  race  does  not  have  plenty  of  children  or  if  the  chil- 
dren do  not  grow  up,  or  if  when  they  grow  up  they 
are  unhealthy  in  body  and  stunted  and  vicious  in 
mind,  then  that  race  is  decadent,  and  no  heaping  up 
of  wealth,  no  splendor  of  monetary  material  pros- 
perity, can  avail  in  any  degree  as  offsets." 


ids  it 


VIII 

PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE^ 

"A  little  child  shall  lead  them" 

DR.  CHARLES  W.  SALEEBY,  F.  R.  S.  E. 
University  of  Edinburg 


:an  need  ff^EIHIS  book  will  be  mere  foolishness  to  those  who 

Dt  take  the  ||  jfigSM  I  ... 

orid  as  he         i^aBy  I'^PS'^t  the  inhuman  animal  cry  that  we  have 

to  take  the  world  as  we  find  it — the  motto  of 


the  impotent,  the  forgotten,  the  cowardly 
and  selfish,  or  the  merely  vegetable,  in  all  ages. 
The  capital  fact  of  man,  as  distinguished  from  the 
lower  animals  and  from  plants,  is  that  he  does  not 
have  to  take  the  world  as  he  finds  it,  that  he  does 
not  merely  adapt  himself  to  his  environment,  but 
that  he  himself  is  a  creator  of  his  world.  Jf  our  an- 
cestors had  taken  and  left  the  world  as  they  found 
it,  we  should  be  little  more  than  erected  monkeys  to- 
day. For  none  who  accept  the  hopeless  dogma  is  this 
!  book  written.  They  are  welcome  to  take  and  leave 
I  the  world  as  they  find  it ;  they  are  of  no  consequence 
to  the  world;  and  their  existence  is  of  interest  only 
in  so  far  as  it  is  another  instance  of  an  amazing  waste- 
fulness of  Nature  in  her  generations,  with  which  this 
book  will  be  so  largely  concerned, 
:uman  life  Beginning,  perhaps,  some  six  million  years  ago, 

minant  the  fact  which  we  call  human  life  has  persisted  hither- 

to, and  shows  no  signs  of  exhaustion,  much  less  im- 
pending extinction,  being  indeed  more  abundant 
numerically  and  more  dominate  over  other  forms  of 
life  and  over  the  inanimate  world  today  than  ever 

y        *From    "Parenthood    and    Raco    Culture."       Copyright,    1907,    by 
Moflfat  and  Company.     All  rights  reserved. 

86 


PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE  87 

before.  It  is  a  continuous  phenomenon.  The  life 
of  every  blood  corpuscle  or  skin  cell  of  every  human 
being  now  alive  is  absolutely  continuous  with  that  of 
the  living  cells  of  the  first  human  being — if  not, 
indeed,  as  most  biologists  appear  to  believe,  the  first 
life  upon  the  earth.  Yet  this  continuous  life  has 
been  and  apparently  always  must  be  lived  in  a  tissue 
of  amazing  discontinuity — amazing,  at  least  to  those 
who  can  see  the  wonderful  in  the  commonplace.  For 
though  the  world-phenomenon  which  we  call  Man 
has  been  so  long  continuous,  and  is  at  this  moment, 
perhaps,  as  much  modified  by  the  total  past  as  if  it 
were  really  a  single  undying  individual,  yet  only  a 
few  decades  ago,  a  mere  second  in  the  history  of  the 
earth,  no  human  being  now  alive  was  in  existence. 
"As  for  man,  his  days  are  as  grass ;  as  a  flower  of  the 
field,  so  he  flourisheth.  For  the  wind  passeth  over  it, 
and  it  is  gone;  and  the  place  thereof  shall  know  it 
no  more."  Indeed,  not  merely  are  we  individually 
as  grass,  but  in  a  few  years  the  hand  that  vsrites  these 
words,  and  the  tissues  of  eye  and  brain  whereby  they 
are  perceived,  will  actually  he  grass.  Here,  then,  is 
the  colossal  paradox:  absolute  literal  continuity  of 
life,  every  cell  from  a  preceding  cell  throughout  the 
ages —  omnis  cellula  e  cellula;  yet  three  times  in  every 
century  the  living  and  only  wealth  of  nations  is  re- 
duced to  dust,  and  is  raised  up  again  from  helpless 
infancy.    Where  else  is  such  catastrophic  continuity? 

Each  individual  enters  the  world  in  a  fashion  the  continuity 
dramatic  and  sensational  character  of  which  can  be  °^  ^^^ 
realized  by  none  who  have  not  witnessed  it ;  and  in  a 
few  years  the  individual  dies,  scarcely  less  dramatic- 
ally as  a  rule,  and  sometimes  more  so.  This  continu- 
ous and  apparently  invincible  thing,  hiiman-Jife^. 
which  began  so  humbly  and  to  the  sound  of  no  trum- 


88 


PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE 


Parenthood 
the   life 
link 


pets,  in  Southern  Asia  or  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Caspian  sea,  but  "which  has  never  looked  back  since 
its  birth,  and  is  now  the  dominant  fact  of  what  might 
well  be  an  astonished  earth,  depends  in  every  age  and 

/from  moment  to  moment  upon  here  a  baby,  there  a 
baby,  and  there  yet  another ;  these  curious  little  ob- 
jects being,  of  all  living  things,  animal  or  vegetable, 
young  or  old,  large  or  small,  the  most  utterly  helpless 
and  incompetent,  incapable  even  of  finding  for  them- 
selves the  breasts  that  were  made  for  them.  If  but 
one  of  all  the  "hungry  generations"  that  have  pre- 
ceded us  had  failed  to  secure  the  care  and  love  of  its 
predecessor,  the  curtain  would  have  come  down  and 
a  not  unpromising  though  hitherto  sufficiently  gro- 
tesque drama  would  have  been  ended  forever. 

It  is  thus  to  the  conception  of  parenthood  as 
the  vital  and  organic  link  of  life  that  we  are  forced. 
"We  shall  see,  in  due  course,  that  no  generation,  wheth- 
er of  men  or  animals  or  plants,  determines  or  pro- 
videsr~a&_-^a  whole,  the  future  of  Jhe  race.  Only  a 
percentage  as  a  rule,  a  very  small  percentage  indeed, 
of  any  species  Teach  maturity,  and  fewer  still  become 

.  parents.  Amongst  ourselves,  one-tenth  of  any  genera- 
tion gives  birth  to  one-half  the  nest.  These  it  is  who, 
in  the  lorg  run,  make  History:  a  Kant  or  a  Spencer, 
dj'ing  childless,  may  leave  what  we  call  immortal 
works;  but  unless  the  parents  of  each  new  generation 
are  rightly  chosen  or  ''selected" — to  use  the  techni- 

)cal  word — a  new  generation  may  at  any  time  arise 
to  whom  the  greatest  achievements  are  nothing.  The 
newcomers  will  be  as  swine  to  these  pearls,  the  im- 
mortality of  which  is  always  conditional  upon  the 
capacity  of  those  who  come  after  to  appreciate  them. 
There  is  here  expressed  the  distinction  between  two 
kinds  of  progress:  the  traditional  progress  which  is 


PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE  89 

dependent  upon  transmitted  achievement,  but  in  its 
turn  is  dependent  upon  racial  progress — this  last  be- 
ing the  kind  of  progress  of  which  the  history  of  pre- 
human life  upon  the  planet  is  so  largely  the  record 
and  of  which  mankind  is  the  finest  fruit  hitherto. 

It  is  possible  that  a  concrete  case,  common  enough, 
and  thus  the  more  significant,  may  appeal  to  the 
reader,  and  help  us  to  realize  afresh  the  conditions 
under  which  human  life  actually  persists. 

-n  T    .      .  T  ,  -i  •  £  Meaning  of 

Forced  mside  a  motor-omnibus  one  evening,  for  motherhood 
lack  of  room  outside,  I  found  myself  opposite  a 
woman,  poorly  clothed,  with  a  wedding  ring  upon  her 
finger  and  the  baby  in  her  arms.  The  child  was 
covered  with  a  black  shawl  and  its  face  could  not  be 
seen.  Tt  was  evidently  asleep.  It  should  have  been 
in  its  cot  at  that  hour.  The  mother 's  face  roused  feel- 
ings which  a  sonnet  of  Wordsworth  might  have  ex- 
pressed, or  a  painting  by  some  artist  with  a  soul,  a 
Rembrandt,  or  a  Watts,  such  as  we  may  look  for  in 
vain  amongst  the  be-lettered  today.  Here  was  the 
spectacle  of  mother  and  child,  which  all  the  great 
historic  religions,  from  Buddhism  to  Christianity, 
have  rightly  jworshiped ;  the  spectacle  which  more 
nearly  symbolizes  the  sublime  than  any  other  upon 
/  which  the  eye  of  a  man,  himself  once  such  a  child,  can 
j  rest;  the  spectacle  which  alone  epitomizes  the  life  of 
mankind  and  the  unalterable  conditions  of  all  human 
life  and  all  human  societies,  reminding  us  at  once  of 
our  individual  mortality,  and  the  immortality  of  our 
race — 

"While  we,  the  brave,  the  mighty  and  the  wise, 
We  Men,  who  in  our  mom  of  youth  defied 
The  Elements,  must  vanish — be  it  so. 
Enough,  if  something  from  our  hands  have  power 
To  live,  and  act,  and  serve  the  future  hour:" 


90  PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE 

the  spectacle  which  alone,  if  any  can,  may  reconcile 
us  to  death ;  the  spectacle  of  that  which  alone  can 
sanctify  the  love  of  the  sexes,  the  spectacle  of  mother- 
hood in  being,  the  supreme  duty  and  supreme  priv- 
ilege of  womanhood — "a  mother  is  a  mother  still, 
the  holiest  thing  alive." 

This  woman,  utterly  unconscious  of  the  dignity  of 
her  attitude  and  of  the  contrast  between  herself  and 
the  imitation  of  a  woman,  elegantly  clothed,  who  sat 
next  her,  giving  her  not  a  thought  nor  a  glance,  nor 
yet  room  for  the  elbow  bent  in  its  divine  office,  was 
probably  some  thirty-two  or  three  years  old,  as  time 
is  measured  by  the  revolutions  of  the  earth  around 
the  sun.  Measured  by  some  more  relevant  gauge, 
she  was  evidently  aged,  her  face  gray  and  drawn, 
desperately  tired,  yet  placid — not  with  due  exultation, 
but  with  the  calm  of  one  who  has  no  hope.  She  was 
too  weary  to  draw  the  child  to  her  bosom,  and  her 
arms  lay  upon  her  knees;  but  instead  she  bent  her 
body  downwards  to  her  baby.  She  looked  straight  out 
in  front  of  her,  not  at  me  nor  at  the  passing  phan- 
tasms beyond,  but  at  nothing.  The  eyes  were  open 
but  they  were  too  tired  to  see.  The  face  had  no 
beauty  of  feature  nor  of  color  nor  of  intelligence,  but 

/it  was  wholly  beautiful,  made  so  by  motherhood;  and 
I  think  she  must  have  held  some  faith.  The  tint  of 
her  skin  and  of  her  eyeballs  spoke  of  the  impoverish- 

'  ment  of  her  blood,  her  need  of  sleep  and  rest  and  ease 
of  mind.  She  will  probably  be  killed  by  consumption 
within  five  years  and  will  certainly  never  hold  a 
grandchild  in  her  arms.  The  pathologist  may  lay  this 
crime  at  the  door  of  the  tubercle  bacillus;  but  a 
prophet  would  lay  it  at  the  reader's  door  and  mine. 


PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE  91 

f        While  we  read  and  write,  play  at  politics  or  ping-  "*- Protection 
pong,  this  woman  and  myriads  like  her,  are  doing  the      through 
essential  work  of  the  world.    The  worm  waits  for  us  as      ™° 
well  as  for  her  and  them:  and  in  a  few  years  her 
children  and  theirs  will  be  Mankind.     We  need  a 
prophet  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not;  to  tell  us  that 
if  this  is  the  fate  of  mothers  in  the  ranks  which  supply 
the   overwhelming   proportion    of   our   children,    our 
I  nation  may  number  Shakespeare  and  Newton  amongst 
the  glories  of  its  past,  and  the  lands  of  ancient  empire 
amongst  its  present  possessions,  but  it  can  have  no 
future ;  that  if,  worshiping  what  it  is  pleased  to  call 
j  success,  it  has  no  tears  or  even  eyes  for  such  failures 
las  these,  it  may  walk  in  the  ways  of  its  insensible 
heart  and  in  the  sight  of  its  blind  eyes;  yet  it  is 
walking  not  in  its  sleep  but  in  its  death,  is  already 
doomed  and  damned  almost  past  recall ;  and  that,  if 
it  is  to_be  saved,  _ there  will  avail  not  "broadening 
the  basis  of  taxation,"  or  teaching  in  churches  the 
worship  of  the  Holy  Mother  and  Holy  Child,  w^hilst 
motherhood  is  blasphemed  at  their  very  doors,  but 
this  and  this  only — the  establishment,  not  in  statutes 
but  in  the  consciences  of  men  and  women,  of  a  true 
religion   based   upon   these   perdurable   and   evident 
dogmas — that  all  human  life  is  holy,  all  mothers  and 
/all  children,  that  history  is  made  in  the  nursery,  that 
the  individual  dies,  and  therefore  children  determine 
r  the  destinies  of  all  civilizations,    that  the    race    or 
I  society  which  succeeds  with  its  mammoth  ships  and 
I  its    manufactures    but    fails    to    produce    men    and 
women,  is  on  the  brink  of  irretrievable  doom;  that 
the  body  of  man  is  an  animal,  endowed  with  the  neces- 
sary animal  instincts  necessary  for  self-preservation 
and  the  perpetuation  of  the  race,  but  that,  if  the 
possession  of  this  body  by  a  conscious  spirit,  "look- 


92  PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE 


ing  before  and  after,"  is  anything  more  than  a 
"sport"  of  the  evolutionary  forces,  it  demands  that, 
the  blind  animal  instincts  notwithstanding,  the  des- 
ecration of  motherhood,  the  perennial  slaughter  and 
injury  of  children,  the  casual  unconsidered  birth  of 
children  for  whom  there  is  no  room  or  light  or  air  or 
food,  and  of  children  whose  inheritance  condemns 
them  to  miserj',  insanity  or  crime,  must  cease ;  and 
that  the  recurrent  drama  of  human  love  and  struggles 
reaches  its  happy  ending,  not  when  the  protagonists 
are  married,  but  when  they  join  hands  over  a  little 
child  that  promises  to  be  a  worthy  heir  of  all  the 
ages.  This  religion  must  teach  that  the  spectacle  of 
a  prematurely  aged  and  weary  and  hopeless  mother, 
which  he  who  runs  or  rides  may  see,  produced  by  our 
rude  foreshado'wdngs  of  civilization,  is  an  affront  to 
all  honest  and  thoughtful  eyes :  that  where  there  are 
no  mothers,  such  as  mothers  should  be,  the  people 
^vill  assuredly  perish,  though  everything  they  touch 
should  turn  to  gold,  though  science  and  art  and  phi- 
losophy should  flourish  as  never  before.  I  believe 
that  history,  rightly  read,  teaches  these  tremendous 
lessons. 


CAT    AND     KITTENS 

After  the   Painting   by   Louis   Eugene   Lambert. 
In   the   Metropolitan    Museum    of  Art.    New    York. 


rx 


THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS 
Its  Ideals  and  What  It  is  Going  to  Do 

G.  STANLEY  HALL,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

President,  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass. 

UGENICS  may  be  roughly  described  as  the 
science  and  the  art  of  breeding  applied  to 
man,  whom  we  have  shamefully  neglected, 
although  we  have  long  applied  them  to  plants 
and  animals.  "We  can  breed  cattle,  but  not  men."  If 
heredity  is  the  most  precious  kind  of  wealth  and 
worth,  more  important  than  education  or  even  en- 
vironment, then  eugenics  is  larger  than  pedagogy, 
religion  and  all  other  culture  influences  combined. 
At  any  rate,  no  one  questions  the  importance  of  being 
born  not  only  without  moral  or  physical  taint,  but 
of  healthy,  vigorous  and  upright  parents  and  grand- 
parents. 

1.     The  Mannheim  International  Congress  and  all 
the  prophylactic  societies  agree  that  sex  should  be 

/taught  in  week  day  and  Sunday  schools,  that  there 
is  tragic  ignorance  and  misinformation,  and  the  in- 
struction should  come  early.  This,  the  statistics,  now 
a  body  of  literature  by  itself  concerning  secret  vice 
1  and  sex  diseases  among  young  people  and  in  men's 
I  colleges,  appallingly  shows,  we  must  provide.  The 
only  open  questions  are  now  by  whom  these  topics 
shall  be  taught,  whether  by  parents,  teachers,  or  doc- 
tors ;  and  how,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  and  how 
early,  whether  in  the  upper  grammar  grades  or  later. 

Vol.    1—7  ^3 


Definition   of 
eugenics 


Teaching 

sex 


94  THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS 

The  answer  to  these  three  questions  when  a  mature 
consensus  is  reached  will,  I  think,  run  somewhat  as 
follows : 

a.  By  whom?     By  the    physicians,    with    their 
/horrid  array,  only  to  individuals  in  special  need.  Most 

physicians  know  very  little  indeed  of  the  practical 

psychology,  pedagogy  or  hygiene  of  sex.    These  topics 

are  not  in  the  medical  curriculum  and  even  venereal 

diseases  are  little  stressed  in  medical  schools.    Again, 

I  the  medical  code  is  a  standing  menace  to  the  public 

health  and  in  reference  to  these  infectious  diseases  as 

it  is  not  in  reference  to  any  others  that  are  contagious. 

/This  teaching  should  be  given  by  parents  if  possible, 

^  especially  by  mothers  to  daughters,  but  only  a  very  few 

parents  are  competent,  and  most  of  the  wisest  fathers 

find  that  sex  shame  makes  it  hard  to  speak  out  plainly 

enough  to  their  adolescent  sons.    Hence  it  is  up  to  the 

/      teacher  and  the  clergyman  in  a  large  majority  of  cases 

to  enlarge  their  function   and  fit   themselves  to  be 

guides  of  the  rising  generation. 

b.  How  should  sex  be  taught?  Briefly  and  con- 
cisely and  not  by  books  of  many  pages  of  the  Stall 
order,  some  of  it  by  printed  matter  in  the  form  of 
leaflets  with  condensed  information  such  as  are  now 
procurable  from  half  a  score  of  societies  that  have 
provided  them.  This  should  be  supplemented  by  per- 
sonal counsel  upon  individual  needs  and  seizing  op- 
portunities and  openings  as  they  arise  in  a  confes- 
sional way  and  on  the  basis  of  relations  of  friendship 
between  older  and  younger  people  such  as  e.  g.  the 
Big  Brother  Movement  affords,  by  advisers  and  men- 
tors, godfathers  and  mothers,  or  lay  or  accessory 
parents.  Curiosity  should  be  watched  for  as  it  arises, 
and  fed  but  not  anticipated.    Young  people  should  be 

/  told  of  their  origin  in  the  mother 's  body  but  not  at 


1' 


THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS  95 

first  of  the  paternal  function.  Where  babies  came 
from  is  often  the  theme  of  long  and  neuroticising 
secret  quest  on  the  part  of  children  and  if  told  at 
the  right  moment  a  little  information  satisfies  for  the 
time  and  may  prevent  not  only  undue  tension  but 
hypertrophy  of  sex  interest  and  bring  children  some 
immunity  to  the  mass  of  infectious  obscenities  in 
their  midst.  Nature  and  growth  rub  out  the  very 
memory  of  these  things  for  us  so  that  adults  have  no 
conception  of  the  eagerness  of  children  about  these 
topics,  nor  do  they  realize  how  briefly  and  concisely 
all  that  is  needed  may  be  told  in  a  way  to  make  it  sink 
deep  forever.  Once  is  enough,  like  a  word  to  the  wise, 
and  no  examination  is  necessary  to  make  it  stick. 
Flowers,  cross  fertilization  and  the  romance  of  plant 
life  tell  much,  especially  to  girls,  but  this  is  not 
enough  for  them,  and  still  less  would  it  suffice  for 
boys,  who  need  lessons  from  animal  breeding.  Such 
I  knowledge  must  be  given  very  plainly  and  unmis- 
""  takably  but  without  self-consciousness  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher.  Self  abuse  must  be  spoken  of,  at  first  as 
chiefly  a  dirty  habit,  and  the  scare  element,  which 
makes  it  the  cause  of  all  sorts  of  most  baleful  con- 
sequences, should  be  vastly  reduced,  both  because 
terror  is  so  liable  and  also  because  it  is  not  true.  Bad 
as  it  is,  its  evils  have  often  been  preposterously  and 
'disastrously  magnified.  Then  there  should  always 
/'be  some  class  instruction,  mostly  to  each  sex  by  itself, 
/  for  the  needs  and  also  the  capacities  of  boys  and  girls 
differ  greatly  here.  Both,  however,  can  be  told  of 
^ their  inheritance  from  parents,  grandparents,  etc.,  as 
we  go  back  to  a  host  of  ancestors  to  whose  virtues  we 
OM^e  all  that  is  good  in  us,  health,  sanity,  etc.  They 
can  also  be  told  of  the  supreme  duty  of  transmitting 
the  sacred  torch  of  life  undimmed  to  the  future  as 


Si. 


96  THE  IDEALS   OF  EUGENICS 

the  highest  point  of  honor  and  loyalty  to  the  count- 
less generations  who  will  throng  this  earth  long  after 
we  and  they  are  all  dead  in  saecula  saeculorum.  Boys 
can  be  told  of  the  respect  they  owe  their  mothers  and 
sisters  and  all  other  boys'  mothers  and  sisters,  and 
girls  of  their  duty  to  their  person,  especially  when 
periodicity  is  seeking  to  establish  itself,  and  also  of 
the  danger  and  unmaidenliness  of  granting  liberties 
to  those  of  the  other  sex  whose  regard  they. wish  to 
hold  and  that  the  attention  of  no  young  man  is  really 
worthy  or  permanent  which  cannot  be  held  by  means 
that  do  not  compromise  self  respect. 

c.  As  to  how  early,  I  reply  we  have  no  right 
nowadays  to  let  any  boy  or  girl  leave  school  satisfy- 
ing the  laws  of  attendance  without  some  essential  in- 
■  formation  on  these  vital  themes  and  a  series  of  at 
least  occasional  talks  should  go  on  through  the  high 
school  and  into  college. 

Otherwise  our  youth  are  not  forewarned  and  fore- 
armed against  the  most  insistent  and  insidious  of  all 
temptations. 
Sex  hygiene  2.     Sex  hygiene  and  regimen  is  twofold,  of  the 

and  regimen  ]-,Q(jy  g^^^^  Qf  ^j^g  mind.  If  both  are  sluggish,  idle,  un- 
occupied, sex  is  so  imperious  that  it  tends  to  push  to 
the  front  and  possess  both  and  may  easily  come  to 
dominant  interest,  especially  through  the  adolescent 
i  decade.  It  may  sweep  everything  before  it,  break- 
I  ing  through  better  knowledge,  prudence,  shame,  honor, 
decency  and  defy  conscience  and  religion.  Hence  no 
amount  of  knowledge,  however  fit,  adequate  and  time- 
ly, is  enough.  We  have  only  begun  our  duty  to  the 
young  when  we  have  instructed  them.  "What  is  need- 
ed? I  reply  first  and  foremost,  absorbing  occupa-  w 
tion.  For  the  body,  active,  healthful,  daily  exercise.^ 
to  the  point  of  normal  fatigue,  and  for  the  mind  inter- 


THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS  97 

ests  of  every  worthy  sort,  intellectual,  social,  aesthetic, 
vocational,  religious.  Every  healthful  zest  and 
activity  makes  directly  for  sexual  hygiene.  The  boy 
who  loves  exercise  and  can  abandon  himself  to  it, 
whether  it  be  work  or  play,  who  keeps  his  muscle, 
digestion,  complexion,  up  to  concert  pitch,  who  ca- 
vorts eagerly  with  good  companions  and  lives  out  of 
doors,  who  roughs  it  occasionally,  gets  close  to  nature, 
the  boy  who  really  wants  to  know  something  about 
many  things  axid  much  about  something,  who  is 
curious  about  autos,  kites,  flying  machines,  who  really 
and  actively  cares  about  science,  art,  invention,  busi- 
ness, trade,  who  is  ambitious  to  excel — such  a  boy 
may  once  and  may  repeatedly  fall  into  sexual  error  '""^ 

and  not  live  up  to  the  standards  set  for  him  by  maiden 
aunts,  but  will  probably  come  out  all  right,  become 
a  good  husband  and  father,  as  every  boy  should  early 
plan  to  be.  On  the  other  hand,  merely  mechanical 
routine,  sedentary,  indoors  occupations,  the  diathesis 
of  living  from  hand  to  mouth  without  thought  of  the 
future,  indolence,  lack  of  vital  interest,  these  make 
the  soul  in  which  every  sort  of  sex  perversion  and 
aberration  flourishes. 

But  even  this  is  not  enough.  There  must  be  active 
cultivation  of  specific  sentiments  and  ideals.  First 
of  all,  honor,  which,  pagan  though  it  be,  in  origin,  I 
believe  to  be  more  effective  as  a  preventive  of  error 
in  this  field  than  even  conscience  itself.  For  what 
is  honor,  of  late  so  much  discussed?  I  believe  it  bot- 
toms on  and  is  essentially  fidelity  to  the  interests  of  ^^^^^<-'\^ 
the  unborn.  It  means  ideal  conduct  and  life  which 
realizes  that  the  transmission  of  life  is  the  supremest 
of  all  human  functions,  conditioning  about  everything 
else,  that  it  is  the  center  of  the  most  and  best  faculties 
and  the  touchstone  of  the  other  virtues  and  gives  on 


98  THE  IDEALS   OF  EUGENICS 

s 
the  whole  the  best  and  loftiest  standards  by  which 

the  real  value  of  individuals  can  be  judged.  Those 
who  are  in  all  respects  the  best  fathers,  the  eugenicists 
of  Europe  would  have  constitute  a  new  order  of  no- 
.  bility,  lords,  knights,  barons  and  princesses  of  the 
truest,  bluest  blood  of  the  nation.  Some  would  even 
endow  the  choicest  parenthood  and  if  needed  pay 
bonuses  for  well  born  babies  and  thus  make  the  bear- 
ing and  rearing  of  superior  and  of  many  children  a 
lucrative  vocation  rewarded  by  the  state.  This  is 
well.  Nor  is  this  all.  They  would  have  positions  in 
business  and  government  employ  given  by  preference, 
other  things  being  somewhere  nearly  equal,  to  those 
having  most  and  best  children,  and  would  consider  this 
in  all  questions  of  advancement,  whether  in  place  or 
pay.  Some  firms  in  Germany,  where  the  birth  rate  is 
declining,  as  it  is  in  nearly  every  country  in  Europe, 
save  Russia,  when  the  world  never  so  wanted  men  for 
its  colonies,  armies,  industries,  have  actually  put  these 
principles  into  practice.  In  the  Orient  nearly  every 
woman  is  bearing  children  during  all  her  fecund  life- 
time, while  in  the  West,  according  to  Ehrenfels,  only 
about  two-thirds  of  their  child-bearing  capacity  is 
utilized.  This  fact  is  the  root  of  the  yellow  and 
'  '  Oriental  peril,  for  the  future  belongs  to  those  people 

who  bear  most  and  best  children  and  bring  them  to 
fullest  maturity.  They  will,  in  the  end,  wield  all 
the  accumulated  resources  of  civilization  and  infer- 
tile races  will  fade  before  them.  Thus  children  are 
the  most  precious  of  all  our  national  resources,  which 
in  these  days  of  their  conservation  we  ought  chiefly 
to  consider. 
Eugenics      /  Nor  is  this  all.     Galton  and  his  followers  would 

as  &  new 

creed     v     have  eugenics  proclaimed  as  the  new  religion  of  the 
\  future,  the  religion  of  this  rather  than  of  another  life. 


^ 


THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS  99 

The  slogan  of  eugenics,  a  new  religion,  the  religion  of 
this  world,  not  of  another,  has  caught  the  imagina- 
tion and  won  the  applause  of  many  who  are  critical 
if  not  hostile  to  Christianity.  It  does  indeed  suggest 
a  creed  and  a  cult  which  modern  culture  and  espe- 
cially science  and  most  of  all  those  who  serve  the  great 
biologos  or  spirit  of  life,  would  place  as  the  supreme 
end  of  man.  But  I  ask  in  closing,  why  call  it  a  new 
religion?  Is  it  not  all  of  it  simply  a  legitimate  new 
interpret-ation  of  our  Christianity  ?  Is  it  not  all  latent 
in  our  Scriptures  ?  Was  anything  more  characteristic 
of  the  ancient  Hebrew  of  Old  Testament  days  than 
their  purity  and  to  keep  the  purity  of  their  blood, 
than  duties  of  parents  to  children  and  vice  versa,  and 
is  there  any  trait  more  peculiar  to  the  Jews  in  our 
day  than  that  they  excel  all  races  save,  perhaps,  one, 
in  fecundity?  The  very  covenant  of  Javeh  with 
Abraham,  the  great  cattle  breeding  sheik  who  founded 
the  Jewish  nation,  was  that  if  he  kept  God's  law 
his  seeds  should  be  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multi- 
tude, as  if  that  were  indeed  the  chief  human  felicity. 

;  This  means,  according  to  the  newest  and  highest  psy- 
chogenetic  criticism,  simply  that  Jehovah's  laws  are 
at  bottom  those  of  eugenics.  The  supreme  criterion  of 

'  virtue  indeed  is  living  in  every  item  for  the  interests 
of  posterity.  The  world  is  for  the  chosen,  the  best, 
it  belongs  to  those  who  come  after  us,  who  will  be  in 
number  like  the  grains  of  sand  upon  the  shore.  That 
their  seed  fail  not  is  the  supreme  blessing.  The  en- 
tire Old  Testament  from  the  myth  of  Eden  to  the 
latest  prophets,  needs  a  new  eugenic  exegesis,  while 
jthe  dominant  theme  of  the  New  Testament  is  love,  the 

'strongest  thing  in  the  soul  of  man,  centered  upon 

]j  service  and  welfare  of  the  race.  Love  and  serve  God 
and  man ;  that  is  the  quintessence  of  our  religion.  "We 


100  THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS 

only  need  to  turn  a  little  larger  proportion  of  the  love 
and  service  we  have  directed  toward  God,  who  does 
not  need  it,  to  man  who  does,  and  we  have  eugenics, 
J  for  who  serves  mankind  so  much  as  he  who  transmits 
the  sacred  torch  of  heredity,  which  is  the  most  pre- 
cious of  all  wealths  and  worths,  undimmed  to  later 
generations  by  bringing  more  and  better  men  and 
women  into  the  world  and  rearing  them  to  the  fullest 
possible  maturity?  Every  human  institution,  family, 
school,  state  and  church,  are,  in  their  last  analysis, 
graded  and  measured  by  what  they  contribute  to 
this  all  comprehendingness.  I  can  merely  say  it  in 
bare  phrases  here,  but  think  it  out  for  yourselves, 
think  seriously;  read  in  this  field  and  you  will  see 
only  what  has  so  long  lain  in  concealed  Christianity 
standing  forth  here  revealed.  The  beatitudes  are 
full  of  it.  The  meek  inherit  the  earth  on  the  simple 
biological  law  that  over-individualization  is  at  the  ex- 
pense of  genesis  and  beyond  a  certain  point  inversely 
as  it.  Nothing  was  ever  so  pedagogically  potent  in 
quenching  youthful  passion  as  hell  fire  when  it  was 
believed  in.  The  better  elements  of  the  gross  phallic 
religions  that  once  covered  the  whole  earth  are  all  re- 
tained and  sublimated  in  Christianity.  Do  you  clergy- 
men falter  in  your  belief  in  total  depravity,  or  are 
you  unsound  on  the  doctrine  of  the  unpardonable 
sin?  If  so  you  only  need  to  hear  as  I  sometimes  do, 
youth,  who  have  lost  all  control  of  their  passions 
and  feel  that  the  possibilities  of  normal  parenthood 
are  forever  lost  to  them  or  that  they  are  tainted  with 
venereal  disease  and  that  their  ancestry  must  end 
with  them,  in  order  to  realize  that  the  ancient  makers 
of  this  new  life,  in  all  the  intimacy  of  the  confessional 
had  at  their  disposal  both  a  diagnosis  and  a  psycho- 
therapy that  we  have  well  nigh  lost.    Mr.  Northcote, 


THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS  101 

the  author  of  Christianity  and  Sex  Problems,  is  right. 
I  Those  who  know  not  sex  and  eugenics  know  not  the 
essence  of  Christianity. 

Christianity  has  never  said  all  that  it  meant.  It  is 
not  yet  all  revealed  to  man.  Scholarship  on  the  one 
hand  and  religous  experience  on  the  other  are  con- 
stantly finding  deeper,  larger  things  in  it,  things 
not  read  into  but  evolved  out  of  it.  Since  Darwin 
showed  how  much  of  the  whole  process  of  selection 
I  by  which  ever  higher  forms  of  life  were  unfolded 
was  sexual  and  that  many  of  the  best  things  from 
flowers  onward  and  play  activities  up  were  secondary 
sex  qualities,  and  again  since  psychotherapy  ha3 
)f  shown  the  hitherto  undreamed  of  potency  of  this 
\  factor  in  human  nature  to  make  health  and  disease, 
sex  also  is  becoming  more  and  more  long  circuited  and 
spiritualized  or  literally  transfigured  with  new  po- 
tency until  now  we  have  in  it  almost  a  new  organ  of 
apperception  for  moral  and  religious  experience,  con- 
firming much  that  some  had  begun  to  doubt  and  re- 
viving much  that  we  were  well  on  toward  forgetting. 
jLove  rules  the  court,  the  camp,  the  grove,  for  "love 
is  God  and  God  is  love"  might  be  the  watchword  of 
the  new  eugenic  aspect  of  Christianity.  To  separate 
religion  and  sex  does  great  wrong  to  both,  for  to 
teach  sex,  at  least  to  the  young,  without  religion  is  to 
leave  out  the  motivation  which  is  the  most  practical 
and  effective,  and  to  conceive  Christianity  without  sex 
is  to  lose  some  of  its  choicest  and  deepest  insights.  In 
fine,  sex  and  reproduction  have  played  a  more  and 
more  important  role  in  each  of  the  following  fields, 
in  some  of  which  they  are  already  dominant;  in 
natural  history  since  Darwin's  sex  selection;  in  an- 
thropology and  sociology  from  McEennan  to  Havelock 
Ellis;  in  criminology  since   Lombroso;    in    medicine 


102  THE  IDEALS  OF  EUGENICS 

since  Krafft-Ebing,  Tranowski  and  Moll  and  the  advo- 
cates of  prophylaxis;  in  psychology  beginning  with 
Freud  and  his  followers ;  in  morals  since  Sutherland 's 
biological  ethics ;  in  religion  since  Ferguson,  Furlong, 
Inman,  Morse  and  Northcote.  In  all  these  fields  sex 
is  a  common  ground  of  larger  and  larger  dimension. 
It  gives  them  more  interest  in  each  other  and  may 
be  destined  to  bring  them  into  a  new  and  higher 
unity.  The  time  for  this  scientific  synthesis  has  of 
course  not  yet  come  and  may  be  long  delayed,  inevit- 
able though  it  seems  sooner  or  later.  Meanwhile  eugen- 
ics draws  upon  all  these  domains  and  has  pointed  out 
many  and  will,  let  us  hope,  find  out  many  more  prac- 
tical ways  of  improving  the  human  stock  and  helping 
the  world  on  towards  the  kingdom  of  some  kind  of 
superman  to  which  the  men  of  today  may  prove  to  be 
only  a  transition,  a  link  which  with  all  that  absorbs 
us  now  may  be  lost  sight  of  and. possibly  become  a 
missing  link. —  [From  '' Religious  Education."] 


INFLUENCE  OF  HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRON- 
MENT UPON  RACE  IMPROVEMENT 

CARL  KELSEY,  Ph.  D. 

Professor  of  Sociology,  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia 

NE  of  the  most  eminent  of  living  biologists  has  sociology's 
recently  written:  "It  is  well  known  that  the  t^fio^'*"* 
sociological  inquiries  of  Malthus  as  to  human 
population  influenced  Darwin,  "Wallace  and 
Spencer,  and  that  the  concept  of  natural  selection 
in  tlie  struggle  for  existence  came  to  biology  from 
above  rather  than  from  within  its  own  sphere.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  fruitful  idea  of  division  of  labor, 
of  the  general  idea  of  evolution  itself  and  of  others — 
they  came  to  biology  from  the  human  social  realm. 
*'To  keep  to  the  concept  of  selection  for  a  mo- 
ment: It  was  applied  to  plants  and  animals,  it  was 
illustrated,  justified,  if  not  demonstrated,  and  formu- 
lated; and  now,  with  the  imprimatur  of  biology  it 
comes  back  to  sociology  as  a  great  law  of  life.  That 
it  is  so  we  take  for  granted,  but  it  is  surely  evident 
that  in  social  affairs,  from  which  it  emanated  as  a 
suggestion  to  biology,  it  must  be  reverified  and  pre- 
cisely tested.  Its  biological  form  may  be  one  thing, 
its  sociological  form  may  be  another. ' ' 

I  have  given  this  quotation  for  several  reasons. 
It  shows  us  clearly  that  the  subjects  under  discus- 
sion in  this  volume  are  in  part  biological,  in  part 
sociological.  These  fields  have  much  in  common,  are 
often  interdependent,  yet  are  separate.  Many  anal- 

103 


104 


HEREDITY  AND  Em^IROXMENT 


Comparative 
importance 
of   heredity 
and 
environment 


ogies  exist,  but  laws  in  one  are  not  ipso  facto  to  be 
considered  laws  in  the  other.  Clear  thinking  then  de- 
mands that  the  two  fields  shall  be  sharply  defined. 
Social  theory  gave  a  great  impulse  to  biological  re- 
search. Biology  now  places  at  the  disposal  of  social 
workers  a  mass  of  knowledge  as  yet  little  appreciated 
whicli  is,  however,  destined  to  revolutionize  social 
programs. 

A  discussion  of  "the  comparative  importance  of 
heredity  and  environment"  is  likely  to  be  very  mis- 
leading. The  problem  is  not  to  determine  which  is 
more  important,  but  to  discover  the  contribution  each 
makes  to  the  body  politic.  I  know  of  no  way  of  com- 
paring the  relative  importance  to  a  given  man  of 
heredity  and  environment  any  more  than  I  know  how 
to  determine  whether  the  stomach  or  the  brain, 
whether  food  or  air,  is  more  important.  Essentials 
cannot  be  compared.  They  can  only  be  discovered 
and  the  functions  of  each  studied.  It  can  easily 
be  shown  that  evils  arising  from  bad  heredity 
are  not  affected  by  changing  the  environment  and 
vice  versa.  A  feeble-minded  person  remains  feeble- 
minded whether  he  vegetates  in  an  almshouse  or  is 
cared  for  at  Elwyn — nor  does  any  change  affect 
his  children.  The  children  of  athletes  are  not  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  scholars  provided  the  stock  be 
the  same ;  nor  are  those  descended  from  church  mem- 
bers or  heretics,  saints  or  sinners,  the  stock  being  the 
same,  and  this  is  true,  popular  opinion  to  the  contrary 
not\\ithstanding. 

At  the  outset  clear  thinking  is  difficult  because  of 
the  different,  often  conflicting,  meanings  given  to 
words.  "When  a  college  senior  defines  animism  as  be- 
lief in  the  Father  and  Son,  but  not  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
we  smile.    Our  feeling  is  a  bit  changed  when  the  head 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 


105 


of  an  institution  for  children  on  being  asked  if  he 
favored  the  indenture  system,  replied,  no,  that  he  pre- 
ferred manual  training.  But  what  progress  can  be 
made  when  even  physicians  confuse  congenital  with 
inherited  characters  and  do  not  see  that  the  transmis- 
sion of  a  disease  like  syphilis  from  parent  to  child 
does  not  mean  that  the  child  inherited  the  disease? 
In  my  judgment,  we  should  limit  the  term  inheri- 
/  tance  to  those  physical  characters  which  are  deter- 
mined, we  know  not  how,  in  the  germ  cells.  These 
germ  cells  unite  and  growth  begins.  All  modifica- 
tions, whether  caused  by  some  poison,  say  alcohol ;  by 
disease,  say  syphilis ;  by  accident ;  by  over  or  under 
nutrition,  are  technically  known  as  acquired  charac- 
ters. Congenital,  then,  refers  merely  to  the  fact  that 
certain  characters  exist  at  birth — it  tells  nothing  as  to 
their  origin.  Contrary,  again,  to  popular  judgment, 
biologists  now  almost  unanimously  believe  that  such 
acquired  characters  or  modifications  have  no  effects 
on  germ  cells  later  produced  by  the  individual,  and 
therefore  produce  no  change  in  the  next  generation. 
Be  it  remembered  that  "acquired  characters"  do  not 
refer  to  any  of  the  features  which  may  have  come 

Oto  the  human  race  through  inborn  variations.     Our 
language  is  at  fault.  "When  we  say  the  human  race  has 
,^  acquired  given  characteristics  we  refer  to  inborn  not 


\ 


to  "acquired  characters."  Failure  to  make  the  dis- 
tinction is  a  fruitful  source  of  error  for  those  not 
trained  in  biology.  Space  prohibits  the  discussion  of 
this  most  important  point.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that, 
while  no  one  knows  what  causes  the  offspring  to  vary 
from  the  parents,  we  now  know  that  certain  things 
formerly  held  all-important  are  of  no  effect. 

At  this  very  point  a  new  difficulty  arises.    Heredity 
is  often  used  in  the  sense  of  social  heredity.    We  say 


Definitions  of 

"inherited," 

"congenital" 

and 

"acquired" 


106  HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 

a  child  inherits  the  customs,  ideak,  learning — the 
whole  culture  of  the  parent  group.  A  little  refiec- 
y  tion  makes  clear  that  these  are  social  inheritances, 
'•  not  physical — quite  as  important,  but  different.  Noth- 
ing is  more  obvious  than  that  the  children  of  certain 
groups  are  better  housed,  better  fed,  better  trained 
and  educated  than  those  of  other  groups.  That,  on 
the  whole,  these  are  to  be  leaders  is  evident.  So 
quick  are  we  to  jump  at  conclusions,  however,  that 
the  world-wide  assumption  has  been  that  these  chil- 
dren have  a  better  line  of  physical  descent.  Is  this  a 
self-evident  fact?  May  not  their  superiority  be  due 
to  their  environment,  not  to  heredity  ?  Investigation, 
not  argument,  must  furnish  the  answer. 
Grotmds  The  qucstion  to  be  considered  in  this  connection  is 

mLriage  whether  the  marriages  of  human  beings  have  been 
consummated  on  physical  or  social  grounds.  If  the 
evidence  shows  that  social,  political,  financial  consid- 
erations have  determined  the  bulk  of  the  matings, 
then  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  that  better  strains 
have  been  created  and  perpetuated.  That  they  could 
be,  no  biologist  doubts,  but  social  customs  prevent. 
Bagehot  somewhere  says:  "Man,  unlike  the  lower  ani- 
mals, has  had  to  be  his  own  domesticator. ' '  Man  has 
found  it  worth  while  not  merely  to  tame,  but  also  to 
carefully  breed  the  domestic  animals.  Unfortunately, 
it  would  seem,  the  suggestion  that  he  might  improve 
his  0"WTi  stock  has  received  little  consideration.  The 
term  "Eugenics"  is  hardly  understood  in  America, 
though  better  known  in  England.  Here  is  a  vast  field 
for  study.  I  could  only  suggest  that  it  is  doubtful 
if  it  can  be  shown  that  during  all  historic  time  the 
human  race  has  made  any  material  change  via  the 
road  of  heredity. 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 


107 


/ 


Race  is  another  hobgoblin.  "We  all  know  what  a 
race  is,  yet  no  one  can  tell  where  one  race  stops  and 
another  begins,  physically — that  is,  legally  we  often 
accomplish  the  impossible.  What  are  race  differences, 
physical  or  social  ?  What  are  the  effects  of  race  cross- 
ings? These  are  tremendously  important  questions 
for  us  today.  In  many  states  certain  inter-race  mar- 
riages are  prohibited  by  law.  Why  ?  Because  of  phys- 
ical or  social  results?  There  may  be  important 
physical  differences  between  the  races.  I  know  not. 
I  only  venture  to  state  that  no  one  has  yet  shown 
what  they  are.  If  this  be  so,  then  popular  discussion 
should  yield  to  scientific  inquiry. 

Race  differences  aside,  the  problem  of  maintaining 
a  sound  physical  stock  confronts  us^  For  a  century  we 
have  boasted,  vain-gloriously,  of  our  wonderful  pro- 
gress, of  our  physical  as  well  as  mental  superiority. 
Suddenly  we  find  our  faith  challenged.  Anglo-Saxon 
in  civilization  we  may  remain,  but  not  in  stock.  Our 
ancestors  first  "fell  on  their  knees  and  then  on  the 
aborigines,"  and  prevailed  because  of  their  superior- 
ity. Now  their  descendants  claim  that  the  inferior 
peoples  of  Europe  are  destroying  them.  How  can 
such  a  paradox  be  explained  ?  Can  it  be  that  the  vir- 
tues of  the  old  stock  were  due  to  the  development 
caused  by  the  outdoor  frontier  life?  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  earlier  immigrants  found  their  op- 
jportunities  in  the  open,  while  those  coming  today  find 
^theirs  in  the  crowded  industrial  centers.  The  signifi- 
cance of  this  is  more  apparent  when  we  reflect  that 
every  study  shows  that  great  groups  of  our  people  are 
living  and  working  under  improper  conditions.  In 
our  haste  we  say  that  they  come  here  from  stocks  of 
low  vitality,  but  is  it  not  possible  that  the  trouble  lies 
in  our  own  social  institutions?     When  it  is  found 


Considerations 
of  race 


MaintaiaiBg 
soand 
physical 
stock 


environment 


108  HEREDITY  AND  EN\''IRONMENT 

that  the  backward  children  in  our  schools  are  phys- 
ically subnormal  better  methods  of  instruction  alone 
will  not  suffice.  The  serious  problems  of  immigration 
are  then  apparently  due  to  social  differences  rather 
than  to  inherited  physical  differences. 

So  far  we  have  considered  the  problem  from  the 
side  of  heredity.  Recognizing  that  there  are  many  un- 
solved questions,  it  would  seem  clear  that  our  first 
duty  is  the  elimination  of  the  unfit,  that  they  may: 
not  become  parents.  Next  comes  the  attempt  to  im- 
prove the  race  stock  by  paying  some  attention  to  bio- 
logical factors  underlying  matrimony.  Personally,  I 
believe  we  are  safe  in  assuming  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  children  in  America  are  born  normal  and 
with  average  possibilities. 
Controlled^  Normal  growth  requires  more  than  mere  adapta- 

tion to  environment.  Social  progress  in  large  meas- 
ure consists  in  controlling  the  environment  in  ever- 
increasing  measure.  Contagious  diseases  no  longer 
rank  among  the  properties  of  the  germ  cells  nor  do 
we  charge  them  to  divine  providence.  Kno"wing  them 
now  to  be  of  bacterial  origin,  we  attack  them  and 
conquer  them  one  by  one.  But  progress  starts  reac- 
tion against  itself.  There  are  those  so  affected  by  the 
statement  that  forty  million  bacteria  may  exist  in  a 
drop  of  milk  that  they  prefer  diseased  milk  to  such 
knowledge.  Prudery  prevents  the  open  and  frank 
discussion  of  those  venereal  diseases  which  so  vitally 
affect  the  human  race.  Such  opposition  must  not  pre- 
vail. 

It  is  increasingly  evident  that  the  conditions  of 
life  and  labor  of  the  workers  of  the  world — children, 
men  and  women — are  of  fundamental  importance. 
Better  a  slow  development  than  one  purchased  at  the 
expense   of   the    future   efficiency   of   child   laborers. 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 


109 


Fatal  to  process  is  the  continued  existence  of  large 
groups  under  conditions  causing  physical  or  mental 
breakdo^^Ti.  Self-evident,  you  say?  Granted,  by 
everyone  in  theory,  but  often  denied  in  fact.  Vested 
interests,  private  profit,  selfishness,  are  here  the  han- 
dicaps. 

Evident,  too,  it  appears  to  the  student  that  many 
old  social  institutions  must  be  speedily  and  perhaps 
radically  changed  to  meet  new  conditions  if  contin- 
ued prosperity  is  to  be  ours.  Our  schools  must  pre- 
pare the  ninety-five  per  cent  for  life,  not  the  five  per 
cent  for  college,  for  instance.  Here  the  handicap  is 
conservatism. 

In  a  word,  we  live  and  think  too  much  in  vicious 
circles.  Men  and  women  live  and  work  under  bad 
conditions.  The  children  are  poorly  nourished  and 
sadly  neglected.  Low  ideals  are  inculcated.  Result — 
inefficiency,  poverty,  vice,  crime.  In  another  group 
opposite  conditions  prevail,  opposite  results  follow. 
Popular  opinion  of  the  successful  group  says  hered- 
ity-blood tells ;  that  of  the  other  says  environment, 
exploitation,  lack  of  opportunity.  I  know  of  no  bet- 
ter way  of  contrasting  the  philosophy  of  the  so-called 
upper  and  lower  worlds. 

To  such  loose  thinking  an  increasing  protest  is 
arising.  Unconscious,  perhaps,  of  its  full  significance, 
many  of  those  now  grappling  with  social  problems 
are  condensing  their  statement  of  causes  into  the  one 
word,  ''maladjustment."  In  a  word,  we  create  the 
evil  as  well  as  the  good.  Nature  is  impersonal.  To 
an  increasing  degree  man  determines.  The  race  stock 
remains  practically  unchanged.  Each  generation 
starts  on  the  same  physical  level.  Are  conditions 
such  that  physical  strength  will  be  conserved  or  ex- 
hausted?    Will    children    become    robust    men    and 

Vol.   1—8 


Duty  of 
schools 


Maladjust- 
ment 


110  HEREDITY  AXD  EN^^IRONMENT 

women  or  weaklings"     Do  social  institutions  provide 
opportunities   or  check   ambition   by   some    form   of 
privilege  ? 
S^  America'"  In  America  we  must  face  the  issue.    God  cares  no 

more  for  us  than  for  other  nations.  The  problems  of 
vice,  crime,  poverty,  are  ours.  Only  by  intelligent 
study  of  the  situation,  only  by  effective  co-operation 
in  remedial  and  constructive  measures  can  ultimate 
downfall  be  averted.  As  individuals  we  are  helpless. 
In  my  judgment  the  situation  is  hopeful.  To 
realize  that  our  problems  are  chiefly  those  of  environ- 
ment which  we  in  increasing  measure  control;  to 
realize  that,  no  matter  how  bad  the  environment 
of  this  generation,  the  next  is  not  injured  pro- 
vided that  it  be  given  favorable  conditions,  is  surely 
to  have  an  optimistic  view.  Shall  not  our  ideal  be, 
then,  a  sound  body  as  the  necessary  basis  of  a  sound 
mind,  a  healthy,  progressive  race? 


XI 


laws. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HEREDITY  ON  HUMAN 

SOCIETY 

CHARLES  B.  DAVENPORT 
Director,    Station    for    Experimental    Evolution    (Carnegie 
Institution  of  Washington),  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long 
Island,  N.  Y. 

|UMAN  society  is  a  loose  organization  of  the 
people  of  any  race  or  country  that  is  based 
on  traditions  and  consensus  of  opinion  ex- 
pressed both  in  "good  manners"  and  written 
Such  an  organization  tends  to  make  more 
agreeable  and  effective  man's  existence  as  a  gregari- 
ous species.  Human  society  is  not  everywhere  the 
same,  because  the  traditions  of  peoples  differ.  The 
best  citizens  in  certain  regions  of  Africa  go  clad  in  a 
way  that  would  lead  to  incarceration  in  Philadelphia, 
while  the  marital  relations  of  certain  oriental  coun- 
tries would  have  been  considered  impossible  in  the 
loosest  year  of  the  Dakotas.  Recognizing  once  for  all 
the  arbitrary  nature  of  our  social  traditions,  we  have 
to  consider  how  heredity  influences  the  white  man's 
society  of  the  United  States  of  today. 

First  of  all  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  that,  until 
recently  at  least,  human  society  was  founded  on  a 
fundamentally  wrong  assumption  that  all  men  are 
created  alike  free  agents,  capable  of  willing  good  or 
evil,  and  of  accepting  or  rejecting  the  invitation  to 
join  the  society  of  normal  men.  But  in  recent  de- 
cades legislators  have  come  to  realize  that  human 
protoplasm  is  vastly  more  complex  than  their  phi- 
Ill 


Cbanging 
basis   as   to 
man's 
individual 
responsibility 


112  HEREDITY  AND  HUIVIAN  SOCIETY 

losophy  conceived,  and  that  the  normal  man  is  an 
ideal  and  hardly  a  real  thing.  Every  man  is  a  bundle 
of  characteristics,  and  no  two  are  exactly  alike.  Not 
only  has  he  the  physical  characteristics  of  brown, 
black  or  red  hair,  blue  or  brown  eyes,  short  or  tall 
stature,  slight  or  heavy  weight,  but  he  has  a  mass  of 
less  evident  but,  in  their  relation  to  human  society, 
more  important  qualities.  His  sense  organs  may  be 
nearly  normal  or  very  defective,  so  that  he  cannot 
see  the  color  of  the  signals  displayed  to  the  train  he 
is  controlling  or  hear  the  submarine  sound  that  tells 
of  impending  collision,  or  smell  the  smoke  that  should 
warn  him  to  alarm  the  sleeping  inmates.  The  posi- 
tion and  connections  of  the  association  fibres  of  the 
brain  may  approach  the  typical  condition  or  they 
may  be  so  aberrant  that  the  person  misinterprets  the 
things  he  sees.  His  brain  may  be  incapable  of  de- 
veloping properly  in  single  or  all  directions,  so  that 
he  remains  with  defective  judgment,  memory,  and 
even  instincts,  unable  to  appreciate  the  traditions  of 
human  society,  or,  perhaps,  impelled  constantly  to  run 
counter  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  that  so- 
ciety— tearing  them  into  shreds.  He  may  be  subject  to 
illusions  or  hallucinations ;  he  may  suffer  from  melan- 
cholia or  paranoia  in  its  multifarious  forms,  leading 
him  to  commit  arson  or  murder  and  to  assassinate 
high  officials.  Heavy  is  the  toll  human  society  pays 
for  the  presence  of  these  degenerates. 
DegeneratiTe  If  thcsc  qualities  of   degeneration   were   merely 

forces  at  sporadic,  accidental,  due  to  a  rare  combination  of  en- 

vironmental conditions,  human  society  could  protect 
itself  sufficiently  by  secluding  the  feeble-minded,  im- 
prisoning those  with  active  forms  of  psychoses  and 
putting  to  death  those  with  homicidal  tendency.  But, 
on  the  contrary,  just  such  defective  conditions  are 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY         113 

inevitably  transmitted  in  the  germ  plasm  as  are  ap- 
parently being  reproduced  faster  than  the  more  nor- 
mal characteristics.  Thus  Dr.  G.  A.  Doren,  of  the 
Ohio  Institution  for  Feeble-minded  Youth,  states: 
"Unless  preventive  measures  against  the  continu- 
ously progressive  increase  of  the  defective  classes  are 
adopted,  such  a  calamity  as  the  gradual  eclipse,  slow 
decay  and  final  disintegration  of  our  present  form  of 
society  and  government  is  not  only  possible,  but 
probable."  At  a  time  when,  through  prudential  re- 
straint, the  birth  rate  of  the  best  blood  of  our  nation 
barely  suffices  to  replace  that  lost  by  death,  the  un- 
restrained, erotic  characteristics  of  the  degenerate 
classes  are  resulting  in  large  families,  which  are  with- 
drawn from  the  beneficent  operation  of  natural  selec- 
tion by  a  misguided  society  that  is  nursing  in  her 
bosom  the  asp  that  may  one  day  fatally  poison  her. 
Modern  studies  in  heredity  show  us  the  danger. 
Whenever  a  unit  quality  or  characteristic  is  lacking 
in  hoth  parents  it  will  be  wanting  in  all  of  their  off- 
spring. If  both  lack  the  capacity  of  developing  prop- 
erly the  cortical  cells  all  of  the  children  will  be  want- 
ing in  this  respect.  Some  of  the  cases  described  by 
Dr.  Martin  W.  Barr  are  certainly  or  probably  of  this 
sort.  He  states  that  he  has  known  "Three  imbecile 
children  who  have  parents  each  of  whom  is  both  im- 
becile and  drunken ;  an  imbecile  deaf  mute,  an  in- 
mate of  an  almshouse  from  girlhood,  is  the  mother 
of  six  illegitimate  idiot  children.  I  have  recently 
been  called  to  examine  ...  an  imbecile  woman 
with  seven  illegitimate  idiot  children.  I  know,  fur- 
thermore, of  a  family  of  twelve  brothers  and  sisters 
all  of  the  lowest  grade  of  idiocy,  two  lapping  their 
food  like  dogs,  their  only  language  animal  cries." 
The  history  of  the  Jukes  suggests  the  same  method 


114 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY 


i    Percentage 
of   develop- 
ment of 
,    family 
traits 


of  inheritance  for  laziness.  The  pauper  harlot,  Ada 
Juke,  married  a  lazy  husband.  Both  parents  are 
temperate,  but  all  four  children  are  indolent,  even  the 
most  industrious  having  received  outdoor  relief.  One 
of  these  children  married  a  lazy  man,  and  all  of  the 
six  children  of  whom  as  adults  there  is  knowledge 
were  lazy.  One  of  these  married  a  lazy  woman,  by 
whom  he  had  nine  children.  Nothing  further  is 
known  of  three  of  them,  but  all  of  the  others  were 
recipients  of  outdoor  relief.  It  will  be  observed  that 
we  have  not  here  to  do  merely  with  a  high  percentage 
of  pauperism  in  the  offspring  of  two  lazy  people,  but 
with  one  hundred  per  cent,  or  complete  pauperism. 
The  children  cannot  rise  in  any  particular  quality 
above  the  potentiality  of  their  more  advanced  parent. 
Training  the  feeble-minded  will  develop  the  charac- 
teristics that  are  present,  but  vnll  create  no  new  ones. 
No  amount  of  training  will  develop  that  of  which 
there  is  no  germ ;  you  may  water  the  ground  and  till 
it  and  the  sun  may  shine  on  it,  but  where  there  is  no 
seed  there  will  be  no  harvest. 

Modern  studies  in  heredity,  again,  show  that  when 
one  parent  has  a  characteristic,  and  comes  of  a  strain 
that  has  it  purely  developed,  while  the  other  lacks  the 
characteristic,  the  children  will  all  tend  to  have  the 
characteristic,  but  in  a  diluted  condition.  Such  a, 
diluted  characteristic  is  called  heterozygous.  In  the 
germ  cells  of  such  children  the  character  segregates 
into  half  of  the  germ  cells  and  the  other  half  lack  it. 
Where  two  such  individuals  possessing  a  heterozy- 
gous character  marry  each  other,  then,  on  the  aver- 
age, one-fourth  of  the  offspring  will  result  from  the 
union  of  two  germ  cells  possessing  the  character,  two- 
fourths  from  one  germ  cell  possessing  and  one  lack- 
ing the  character,   and  one-fourth   from   two   germ 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY  115 

cells  lacking  the  character — children  from  two  such 
germ  cells  will,  of  course,  be  without  the  character 
even  though  both  of  their  parents  possess  it.  We 
have,  possibly,  a  case  of  that  sort  in  the  Jukes,  In 
the  legitimate  branch  of  Ada,  the  harlot,  which  in- 
termarried with  that  of  Clara,  the  chaste,  there  are  in 
generation  No.  5  four  sisters,  children  of  an  indus- 
trious father  and  a  chaste,  legitimate  mother,  whose 
mother,  in  turn,  was  a  chaste  daughter  of  Clara.  Re- 
turning to  the  father,  we  find  his  mother  a  chaste 
daughter  of  Clara.  From  two  such  chaste  parents, 
then,  are  born  the  aforesaid  four  daughters — three 
chaste  and  one  a  harlot.  How  is  this?  Simply  the 
chastity  of  the  parents  was  heterozygous.  Their 
father's  father  was  the  licentious  son  of  Ada,  the  har- 
lot, and  their  mother's  father  was  the  son  of  Belle, 
the  prostitute.  The  proportions  three  to  one,  familiar 
to  every  student  of  mendelian  heredity,  is  thus  ex- 
actly realized  in  these  children  of  tw^o  parents  heter- 
ozygous in  respect  to  chastity.  Environment  seems  to 
have  had  as  little  to  do  with  the  result  as  with  the 
color  of  the  lambs  in  my  flock  of  sheep.  Indeed,  we 
know  already  that  many  human  characteristics  are 
inherited  in  mendelian  fashion — polydactylism,  syn- 
dactylism, short  fingeredness,  bleeding  or  haemophilia, 
night  blindness,  congenital  cataract,  color  blindness, 
keartosis,  palmae,  albinism,  eye  color,  color  and  curli- 
ness  of  the  hair.  Doubtless  many,  if  not  all,  of  the 
elementary  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  charac- 
ters are  thus  inherited.  The  clear  lesson  of  mendel- 
ian studies  to  human  society  is  this :  That  when  two 
parents  with  the  same  defect  marry — and  there  is 
none  of  us  without  some  defect — all  of  the  progeny 
must  have  the  same  defect,  and  there  is  no  remedy 
for  the  defect  by  education,  but  only,  at  the  most  in  a 
<    few  cases,  by  a  surgical  operation. 


116 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY 


Inheritance  of 

positive 

characters 


Inheritance  In 

noted 

families 


Hitherto  I  have  spoken  chiefly  of  heredity  of  de- 
fects, and  I  have  done  so  because  here  heredity  ap- 
pears in  its  simplest  form.  When  any  quality  is  ab- 
sent in  both  parents  it  is  absent  in  all  children,  while 
a  quality  that  is  present  in  the  parents  may  be  heter- 
ozygous in  which  case  it  may  become  absent  in  some 
of  the  children — or  it  may  be  homozygous,  in  which 
case  it  will  be  passed  on  to  100  per  cent  of  the  prog- 
eny. Moreover,  the  presence  of  a  character  in  one 
parent  will  dominate  over  its  absence  in  the  other 
parent,  and  that  is  why  the  offspring  of  a  parent 
j  with  a  pure  character  mated  to  a  parent  without  will 
'  all  possess  the  character.  The  advanced  condition 
masters  the  retarded  or  absent  condition.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  the  inheritance  of  positive  characters  is 
relatively  complex. 

The  importance  to  human  society  of  positive  char- 
acteristics in  the  germ  plasm  needs  irttle  argument. 
All  will  admit  the  debt  of  society  to  the  Bach  family, 
containing  musicians  for  eight  generations,  of  which 
twenty-nine  eminent  ones  were  assembled  at  one  fam- 
ily gathering;  to  the  family  of  the  painter  Titian 
(Vecellio)  with  nine  painters  of  merit;  to  the  Ber- 
Jnouilli  family,  of  Swiss  origin,  with  ten  members 
f  famous  as  mathematicians,  physicists  and  naturalists ; 
to  the  Jussieu  family,  of  France,  with  five  eminent 
botanists ;  to  the  Darwin  family,  which  gave  not  only 
Charles  Darwin,  his  eminent  grandfather,  Erasmus, 
and  his  cousin,  Francis  Galton,  but  also  among  the 
children  of  Charles,  a  mathematical  astronomer  of  the 
first  rank,  a  professor  of  plant  physiology  at  Cam- 
bridge University,  an  inventor  of  scientific  instru- 
ments of  precision,  and  a  member  of  Parliament;  in 
this  country  to  an  Adams  family  of  statesmen,  an 
Abbott  family  of  authors,  a  Beecher  family  of  authors 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY 


117 


and  preachers,  and  an  Edwards  family  that  has  sup- 
plied this  country  with  many  of  its  great  college 
presidents  and  educators,  men  of  science,  leaders  in 
philanthropic  movements,  inventors,  and  leaders  in 
the  industrial  world. 

Important  as  are  these  great  families,  their  quali- 
ties represent  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  powerful 
hereditary  characteristics  that  are  inherent  in  our 
best  protoplasm.  In  this  day  of  conservation  would 
that  we  might  keep  in  mind  that  this  protoplasm  is 
our  most  valuable  national  resource,  and  our  greatest 
duty  to  the  future  is  to  maintain  it  and  transmit  it 
improved  to  subsequent  generations',  to  the  end  that 
our  human  society  may  be  maintained  and  improved. 

We  have  considered  the  influence  on  human  so- 
ciety of  protoplasm  deficient  in  the  characters  that 
determine  sensitiveness,  energy,  proper  association  of 
ideas,  inhibitions  and  other  qualities  that  go  to  make 
a  normal,  moral,  effective  man.  We  have  seen,  on 
the  other  hand,  what  a  precious  heritage  is  in  the  ex- 
traordinarily favorable  combinations  of  favorable 
characters  found  in  certain  grand  families.  Between 
these  extremes  lie  the  great  mass  of  human  beings 
that  are  not  enrolled  on  the  record  books  of  asylums 
or  houses  of  detention  or  listed  in  "Who's  Who," 
but  which  constitute  the  mainstay  of  human  society. 
What  that  society  shall  be  in  the  future  depends  on 
the  characteristics  of  the  common  people  of  the  fu- 
ture. The  question  of  questions  in  eugenics  is  this : 
How  shall  the  inroads  of  degeneracy  be  prevented  and 
the  best  of  our  human  qualities  preserved  and  dis- 
seminated among  all  the  people? 

First,  the  scandal  of  illegitimate  reproduction 
among  imbeciles  must  be  prevented.  That  class  often 
shows  a  frightfuLfecundity.    If  segregation  is  inade- 


Our  most 
important 
national 
resources 


Protection 

against 
imbecility 


118  HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY 

quate  protection  and  since  reason  cannot  overcome 
the  sentiment  against  destruction  of  the  lowest-grade 
imbeciles,  at  least  operation  should  be  required  that 
will  prevent  the  reproduction  of  their  vicious  germ 
plasm. 
Mating!  Second,  the  old  idea  that  there  is  in  society  any 

class  that  is  superior  to  any  other  class  should  be 
abandoned.  It  is  the  characteristics  of  the  germ 
plasm  and  not  individuals  as  a  whole  that  are  favor- 
able or  prejudicial  to  human  society.  The  way  to 
improve  the  race  is  first  to  get  facts  as  to  the  inheri- 
tance of  different  characteristics  and  then  by  ac- 
quainting people  with  the  facts  lead  them  to  make 
for  themselves  suitable  matings.  The  only  rule,  a 
very  general  one,  that  can  be  given  at  present  is  that 
a  person  should  select  as  consort  one  who  is  strong 
;  in  those  desirable  characters  in  which  he  himself  is 
I  weak,  but  may  be  weak  where  he  is  strong.  Such  a 
marriage  will  not  necessarily  lead  to  a  reduction  in 
the  children  of  the  strong  characters,  certainly  not  to 
a  permanent  reduction  in  subsequent  generations,  and 
it  will  probably  lead  to  a  functional  disappearance 
of  the  weak  condition.  By  appropriate  selection  of 
consorts  in  subsequent  generations  the  weak  condi- 
tion may  not  reappear  for  a  long  time,  if  at  all.  Thus 
parents,  deaf  from  different  causes,  will  have  only 
hearing  children,  because  each  parent  contributes  the 
factor  that  the  other  lacked,  and  if  the  children 
marry  into  stock  with  normal  audition  the  ancestral 
defect  will  probably  not  reappear.  But  if  cousins 
with  the  same  hidden  defects  marry,  there  is  one 
chance  in  four  of  two  germ  cells  with  the  same  defect 
meeting  and  reproducing  the  defect.  Herein  lies  the 
danger  of  consanguineous  marriages.  For  there  is 
hardly  a  person  born  with  every  desirable  character- 


HEREDITY  AND  HUMAN  SOCIETY  119 

istic  present  in  the  germ  plasm  and  relatives  are  apt 
to  have  the  same  defects  and  so  are  especially  apt  to 
have  defective  children.  Out  crossings,  marriages 
between  unrelated  persons,  diminish  the  chances  for 
a  similar  combination  from  both  sides.  The  mating 
of  dissimilars  favors  a  combination  in  the  offspring  of 
the  strongest  characteristics  of  both  parents  and  fits 
them  the  better  for  human  society. 

In  what  I  have  said  I  have  repeatedly  approached, 
and  very  likely  at  times  passed  beyond,  the  border- 
land of  science.  I  would  not  be  satisfied  to  leave  you 
with  the  false  idea  that  our  knowledge  of  heredity  is 
now  complete.  Rather  would  I  urge  that  perhaps  the 
greatest  need  of  the  day  for  the  progress  of  social 
science  is  additional  precise  data  as  to  the  unit  char- 
acteristics of  man  and  their  methods  of  heritance. 


xir 

THE  DUTY  OF  RECORDING  FAMILY  TRAITS 

CHARLES  B.  DAVENPORT 

ANY  persons  regard  the  facts  concerning 
physical  and  mental  traits  of  their  families 
as  personal  and  private  matters.  But  this 
is  surely  a  narrow  and  false  view.  The  traits 
of  any  person,  taken  together,  form  a  mosaic  whose 
elements  have  been  derived  from  thousands  of  germ 
plasms  and  may  be  passed  on  to  thousands  of  persons 
who  will  form  part  of  the  social  fabric  of  coming  gen- 
erations. "What  right  have  I,  whose  elements  are 
derived  from  the  society  of  the  past  and  will  pass 
I  into  the  society  of  the  future,  to  maintain  that  the 
society  of  today  has  no  right  to  question  me — ^who 
am  merely  a  sample  of  this  universal  germ  plasm? 
No  one  who  looks  broadly  at  the  relation  his  family 
bears  to  the  commonwealth  will  hesitate  to  put  on 
record  an  inventory  of  his  family  traits. 

But  a  record  to  be  permanently  useful  must  be 
deposited  where  it  may  be  kept  free  from  danger  of 
fire,  properly  indexed  so  that  its  contents  are  acces- 
sible, and  used  for  the  determination  of  the  laws  of 
heredity,  for  the  identification  and  connection  of  fam- 
ily strains  and,  under  proper  restrictions,  for  geneal- 
ogists or  for  those  contemplating  marriage.  Such  a 
depository  is  provided  by  the  Eugenics  Record  Office, 
located  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  N.  Y. 
By  writing  to  this  office  you  may  obtain  a  blank  sched- 
ule upon  which  you  may  record  your  heritage.    This 

120 


RECORDING  FAMILY  TRAITS  121 

should  be  conscientiously  filled  out  and  returned  to 
the  office,  where  it  will  be  indexed  and  kept  in  its 
fireproof  vault.  A  second  copy  of  the  schedule  will 
be  given  to  any  collaborator  for  his  own  use.  Spe- 
cifically, the  Eugenics  Record  Office  seeks  pedigrees 
of  families  in  which  one  or  more  of  the  following 
traits  appear: — short  stature,  tallness,  corpulency, 
special  talents  in  music,  art,  literature,  invention,  me- 
chanics and  mathematics,  rheumatism,  hereditary 
I  ataxy,  chorea  of  all  forms,  eye  defect  of  all  sorts, 
:hardness  of  hearing,  peculiarities  of  hair,  skin,  nails, 
teeth  and  fingers  and  toes,  red  hair,  albinism,  harelip 
and  cleft  palate,  cancer,  Thomson's  disease,  hemo- 
philia, exopthalmic  goitre,  diabetes  and  gout.  The 
method  of  inheritance  of  many  of  these  characteris- 
tics is  still  insufficiently  known.  Those  who  con- 
tribute data  will  be  helping  in  studies  that  will  be  of 
use  to  all  civilized  human  beings.  You  are  urged  to 
write  to  the  Eugenics  Record  Office,  Cold  Spring 
Harbor,  New  York,  and  indicate  your  willingness  to 
co-operate  in  this  work. 


XIII 


1.  The 
study  of 
genealogy 


THE   STUDY  OF  GENEALOGY  AND  FAMILY 

TRAITS* 

CHARLES  B.  DAVENPORT 

OWHERE  else  is  a  genealogical  interest 
keener  than  in  America.  The  possibility  of 
tracing  one's  pedigree  back  to  the  first  an- 
cestor of  the  name  in  the  country  has  in- 
spired thousands  of  genealogical  researches,  and  the 
demand  for  assistance  in  working  out  pedigrees  has 
created  the  professional  genealogist.  Still  the  ama- 
teur's work,  like  most  labors  of  love,  is  usually  to  be 
preferred  because  of  the  personal  element  involved. 

The  study  of  genealogy,  under  the  stimulus  of 
our  modern  insight  into  heredity,  is  destined  to  be- 
come the  most  important  handmaid  of  eugenics.  The 
conscientious  and  scientific  genealogist  records  a  brief 
biography  of  each  person  of  the  pedigree  and  such. 
a  biography  should  be  an  analysis  of  the  person's 
traits ;  an  inventory  of  his  physical  and  mental  char- 
acteristics ;  his  special  tastes  in  gifts  as  shown  by  his 
occupation,  and  especially  his  avocations.  It  would 
be  well,  so  far  as  possible,  to  go  further  than  that, 
if  not  for  publication  at  least  for  record.  It  will  be 
desirable  to  get  a  statement  of  physical  weaknesses, 
diseases  to  which  there  was  liability  and  causes  of 
death.  There  are  none  of  these  classes  of  data  that 
are  not  included  in  some  genealogies ;  it  would  be  well 
if  all  were  included  in  all  genealogies.  Another  de- 

*Froia  "Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics." 

122 


GENEALOGY  AND  FAMILY  TRAITS  123 

sideratum  is  abundant  photographs  of  the  persons 
whose  biographs  are  given;  especially,  strictly  full 
face  and  profile,  to  facilitate  comparison;  and  two 
or  three  photographs  at  successive  ages  would  be 
still  better  than  one. 

Attention  should  be  paid  to  the  form  of  the  pedi- 
gree. The  commonest  form  is  that  which  begins  with 
the  first  known  male  ancestor  bearing  the  surname. 
His  children  are  given,  but  in  the  later  generations 
only  the  offspring  of  males  are  named.  Few  gene- 
alogies attempt  either  to  trace  the  lines  going 
through  females  or  to  give  the  ancestry  of  the  con- 
sorts. A  second  form  of  pedigree  begins  with  the 
author  or  some  other  one  person  and  gives  an  ac- 
count of  all  of  his  direct  ancestors  in  ever  expand- 
ing number  toward  the  earlier  generations.  This 
method  is  scarcely  more  valuable  than  the  other  from 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  based  as  it  is  upon  the  ex- 
ploded idea  that  inheritance  is  from  parents,  grand- 
parents, etc. 

The  ideal  genealogy,  it  seems  to  me,  starts  with 
a  (preferably  large)  fraternity.  It  describes  fully 
each  member  of  it.  It  then  describes  each  member 
of  the  fraternity  to  which  the  father  belongs  and 
gives  some  account  of  their  consorts  (if  married)  and 
their  children.  It  does  the  same  for  the  maternal 
fraternity.  Next,  it  considers  the  fraternity  to  which 
the  father's  father  belongs,  considers  their  consorts, 
their  children  and  their  grandchildren  and  it  does 
the  same  for  the  fraternities  to  which  the  father's 
mother  belongs.  If  possible,  earlier  generations  are 
to  be  similarly  treated.  It  were  more  significant  thus 
to  study  in  detail  the  behavior  of  all  the  available 
product  of  the  germ  plasms  involved  in  the  makeup 
of  the  first  fraternity  than  to  weld  a  chain  or  two  of 


124  GENEALOGY  AND  TAl^nLY  TRAITS 

links  through  six  or  seven  generations.    A  genealogy 
constructed  on  such  a  plan  will  give  a  clear  picture 
of  heredity,  would  be  useful  for  the  prediction  of 
I  the  characteristics  of  the  generations  yet  unborn,  and 
I  would,  indeed,  aid  in  bringing  about  better  matings. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  time  will  come  when  each 
person  will  regard  it  as  a  patriotic_duty  to  co-operate 
in  the  compilation  of  such  genealogical  records  even 
to  the  statement  of  facts  which  are,  according  to  the 
(often  false)  conventions  of  the  day,  not  considered 
"creditable." 
traits*"^^  The  results  of  such  genealogical  studies  will  be 

striking.  Each  "family"  will  be  seen  to  be  stamped 
with  a  peculiar  set  of  traits  depending  upon  the 
nature  of  its  germ  plasm.  One  family  will  be  char- 
acterized by  political  activity,  another  by  scholarship, 
another  by  financial  success,  another  by  professional 
success,  another  by  insanity  in  some  members  with 
or  without  brilliancy  in  others,  another  by  imbecility 
and  epilepsy,  another  by  larceny  and  sexual  immor- 
i  ality,  another  by  suicide,  another  by  mechanical  abil- 
ity, or  vocal  talent,  or  ability  in  literary  expression. 
In  some  families  the  members  are  prevailingly  slen- 
der, in  others  stout;  in  some  tall,  others  short;  some 
blue  eyed,  others  dark  eyed;  some  with  flaxen  hair, 
others  with  black  hair;  some  have  diseases  of  the 
ear,  others  of  the  eye,  or  throat,  or  circulation.  In 
some  nearly  all  die  of  consumption;  in  others  there 
is  no  weakness  of  the  mucous  membranes,  but  a  ten- 
dency to  apoplexy;  others  die  prevailingly  of 
Bright 's  disease  or  valvular  disease  of  the  heart,  or  of 
pneumonia.  In  some  families  nearly  all  die  at  over 
eighty,  in  others  all  die  under  forty  years  of  age. 
Stammering,  hirsuteness,  extra  dentition,  aquiline 
nose,  lobeless  ears,  crocked  digits,  extra  digits,  short 


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GENEALOGY  AND  FAMILY  TRAITS  125 

digits,  broad  thumbs,  ridged  nails — there  is  hardly 
an  organ  or  the  smallest  part  of  an  organ  that  has 
not  its  peculiar  condition  which  stamps  a  family. 

Said  a  lady  to  me,  ' '  I  was  traveling  in  Egypt  and 
met  a  man  who  was  introduced  to  me  as  Mr.  Osborn. 
I  said  to  him  'My  mother  was  an  Osborn.  I  wonder 
if  we  are  related.'  He  replied,  'Let  me  see  if  you 
have  the  Osborn  thumb,'  "  and  she  was  able  to  show 
the  family  trademark.  How  often  a  peculiar  laugh, 
a  trick  of  speech  or  gesture,  wall  serve  to  identify  the 
family  of  a  stranger.  Once  in  a  city  where  my  fam- 
ily  was  well  kno\\Ti  but  where  I  was  a  stranger,  I 
needed  to  get  a  check  cashed  and  went  to  an  office 
where  my  father  and  brother  had  done  business.  On 
explaining  my  need  to  the  head  of  the  firm  he  sup- 
plied it  without  hesitation,  saying:  "Though  I  have 
never  seen  you  before  I  would  know  anywhere  that 
you  were  a  Davenport."  So  wonderfully  are  de- 
tails of  facial  muscles,  form  of  skull  bones  and  nose 
cartilage  stamped  in  the  family  blood.  Such  fea- 
tures as  these  deserve  full  treatment  in  the  philo- 
sophical family  history. 

Many  works  on  genealogy,  as  I  have  said,  give  a 
little  account  of  family  traits.  A  few  of  those  have 
been  excerpted  from  the  public  works  and  are  re- 
produced here  chiefly  to  illustrate  the  specificity  of 
human  families.  Of  course,  except  where  there  is 
much  consanguineous  marriage,  not  all  traits  will 
appear  in  all  or  even  most  individuals  of  the  family, 
and  new  traits  are  being  introduced  by  marriage.  But 
certain  characteristics,  because  of  their  special  nature 
or  the  frequency  with  which  they  occur  in  certain 
branches  of  the  family,  will  come  to  be  known  as 
^'family  traits." 

Vol.  1—9 


XIV 

EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

HELEN  C.  PUTNAM,  A.  B.,  M.  D. 

Ex-President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine,  and  a 
Director  of  tlie  American  Association  for  Study  and 
Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality. 

^uwtoo^d^'     rii^/l -^  ^^®  facing  certain  facts.    One  is  that  parent- 


hood does  not  make  wise  parents ;  for  some 
fathers  and  even  some  mothers  deliberately 
teach  their  children  vice ;  more,  by  their  con- 
versation and  acts,  carelessly  teach  evil;  many  more, 
while  perhaps  guarding  their  own,  will,  in  order  to 
make  money,  degrade  the  children  of  other  parents  by 
employment  and  wages,  by  housing  conditions,  by  en- 
tertainments and  reading  matter  and  pictures,  by 
saloons  and  other  details  of  city  management;  very 
many  more  parents  neglect  their  children  through 
ignorance,  or  other  occupations  and  pleasures.  A 
very  large  part  of  modern  social  effort  is  struggling  to 
undo  the  mistakes  of  parents. 

We  are,  too,  facing  the  facts  that  manhood  does 
not  always  make  a  wise  citizen,  nor  womanhood  al- 
ways an  unwise  citizen ;  that  political  elections  do  not 
make  wise  government  or  wise  school  officials.  Right 
education  is  the  remedy  for  unwise  parents  and  citi- 
zens of  either  sex;  for  unwise  officials  in  state  house, 
city  hall,  and  school  department.  The  crucial  educa- 
tion is  that  for  parenthood.  Parenthood  may  become 
the  nearest  to  Godhood. 

The  Creator  has  established  certain  laws  for 
parenthood.     Their  violation  even  ignorantly  injures 

126 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD  127 

'uture  generations,  burdening  society  and  hindering 
higher  civilization.  Our  first  duty  is  to  search  out  his 
laws,  and  this  is  done  by  expert  students  of  his  handi- 
work— man  and  the  not-man.  We  call  them  scientists, 
whether  they  study  mind,  or  matter,  or  social  rela- 
tions. 

Our  second  duty  is  to  prepare  in  this  scientific 
knowledge  of  parenthood  teachers  of  children — the 
potential  parents ;  for  the  foundations  of  good  parent- 
hood must  be  laid  before  the  event;  after  is  too  late 
to  undo  the  errors  committed  and  duties  omitted  in 
childhood  and  youth.  Neither  can  we  have  marriages 
according  to  the  laws  of  God  until  standards  are  so 
formed  that  only  a  wholesome  person  and  character 
attracts  love — the  consummation  of  the  law.  The  af- 
fections once  engaged,  even  if  sinning  against  the  laws 
of  parenthood,  can  be  diverted  only  in  exceptional 
cases  and  with  suffering. 

This  preparation  of  teachers  of  potential  parents  courses  for 
has  been  developing  during  the  last  twenty  years  in  p^^^^^^o"** 
certain  places  along  definite  lines,  until  paths  well 
blazed  by  successful  experimentation  indicate  where 
our  efforts  should  concentrate.  Preparing  for  wise 
parenthood  is  as  definite  a  process  as  training  for 
nursing,  or  for  running  a  bank,  or  for  building  a 
bridge.  As  schools  for  nurses,  one  of  the  most  benefi- 
cent undertakings  of  the  nineteenth  century,  were 
initiated  by  medical  women  in  their  owti  hospital,  so 
this  training  for  parenthood  was  launched  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Boston  by  the  intelligent  persistence  of 
college  women,  and  against  political  indifference  or 
incapacity  or  opposition  is  wanning  its  way  in  every 
state. 

Such  courses  for  teachers  are  found  in  twenty  or 
more  universities  and  academic  colleges,  in  twice  as 


128  EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

many  special  institutions  and  high  schools,  and  in 
practically  every  agricultural  college,  for  the  United 
States  department  of  agriculture  has  been  their  strong 
supporter.  The  ages  of  pupils  range  from  seventeen 
to  twenty-five  or  thirty.  They  may  teach,  and  they 
may  marry.  These  courses  have  minor  variations ; 
but  the  brief  description  of  one  will  give  a  fair  idea 
of  the  trend  of  all. 

This  course  takes  the  larger  part  of  pupils'  time 
for  four  years,  the  remaining  being  given  to  the  usual 
studies — language,  literature,  history.  The  wise  locat- 
ing, planning,  and  building  of  a  house,  its  wise  care, 
the  care  and  feeding  of  a  family,  depend  fundamen- 
tally on  understanding  certain  laws  of  chemistry, 
physics,  and  living  things  (biology),  and  on  still  in 
the  arts  of  applying  them  to  the  duties  of  parents. 
These  sciences  are  taught,  not  as  we  find  them  ordi- 
narily in  men's  curricula,  but  as  they  directly  con- 
cern healthfulness  of  premises,  clothing  and  habits, 
wholesomeness  of  food,  and,  finally,  the  creation  de- 
veloped out  of  these  factors  and  habits,  character  and 
social  relations. 

The  central  thought  on  which  these  four  years  of 
work  is  focused  is :  "  Improving  the  individual  so  that 
future   generations  may  attain  a  higher  level  than 
'       those  preceding  them."     Education  before    this    has 
.  i'-  stopped  with  more  or  less  of  improving  the  individual 

so  that  he  may  win  "success,"  or  "happiness,"  or 
wealth.     This  definitely  holds  up  an  ideal  of  respon- 
sibility that  is  infinite — future  generations. 
A  course  A  Summary  of  their  study  of'social  relations*  will 

^outiined  |-,g  uscful.  It  comes  after  two  and  a  half  years  in 
chemistry,  physics,  biology,  bacteriology,  and  physiol- 
ogy, and  household  management.    The  development  of 

*  Under  Prof.  Abby  L.  Marlatt,  University  of  Wisconsin. 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 


129 


the  infant  before  birth  from  the  single  cell  is  first  dis- 
cussed, and  as  the  students  have  seen  these  beginnings 
many  times  in  plant  and  animal  life  in  their  biologic 
laboratory,  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  adapt  that  knowl- 
edge to  human  life.  The  discussion  of  heredity,  of 
which  they  have  already  tested  certain  facts  in  their 
biology,  takes  up  Mendelian  laws  of  heritance  of  in- 
herent characteristics,  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characteristics,  the  effects  on  germ  plasm  of  alcohol- 
ism, syphilis,  drug  habits.  They  learn  the  fact  that 
drunkards,  insane,  feeble-minded,  habitual  criminals, 
and  sexually  depraved  men  and  women  usually  have 
children  with  defective  nervous  systems,  and  usually 
breed  their  kind.  They  learn  the  real  significance  of 
"good  stock"  on  the  father's  and  on  the  mother's 
side. 

Teachers  with  this  knowledge  can  do  much,  in- 
directly and  directly,  in  mothers'  and  parents'  clubs, 
and  with  children,  to  develop  through  the  country 
right  ideas  of  marriage  to  replace  the  unwholesome 
ones  now  so  common  among  young  people  and  among 
their  parents,  who  should  know  and  teach  their  chil- 
dren better. 

There  is  a  far-reaching  significance  in  their  enum- 
eration of  syphilis  and  gonococcus  infection  (not 
"gonorrhoea,"  one  of  its  manifestations)  among  or- 
dinary contagious  diseases,  and  in  their  study  of  these 
statistics  as  well  as  the  others  in  government  and 
scientific  reports,  and  their  relation  to  the  home; 
for  they  are  not  less  than  five  times  as  prevalent  as 
tuberculosis  and  all  other  contagions  together,  and 
they  injure  wives  and  children  to  an  extent  not  pos- 
sible to  estimate.  They  are  the  cause  of  many  deaths 
before  birth  (characteristic  of  syphilis)  ;  of  the  death, 
degeneracy,   blindness  of  many  infants  in  the  first 


-C^O"f  ' 


:._J— , 


Extent  and 
dangers  of 
Bjrphilis  and 
gonococcus 
infection 


130 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 


Securing 
adequate  laws 
on  reporting 
these 
contagions 


years  of  life ;  of  many  childless  families  and  one  child 
families  (a  peculiarity  of  gonococcus  infection)  ;  of 
the  invalidism,  surgical  mutilation,  and  death  of  many 
wives;  of  much  insanity,  rheumatism,  heart  disease, 
and  other  physical  and  mental  incapacity;  of  much 
divorce,  unhappiness,  crime;  of  expenditure  of  large 
public  and  private  funds  and  effort  on  misfortunes 
that  can  and  should  be  prevented.  They  have  through 
slow  processes,  exterminated  ancient  nations  and  mod- 
ern communities.  If  they  increase  through  the  next 
quarter  century  at  the  rate  of  the  last,  it  would  seem 
as  if  this  nation,  too,  must  decline.  In  my  own 
professional  experience,  as  in  that  of  other  physicians, 
the  fate  of  married  sister  or  friend  has  prevented — is 
preventing — marriages.* 

The  students  see  logically  that  control  of  these 
contagions  must  be  the  same  as  control  of  smallpox, 
scarlet  fever,  and  any  other  of  the  several  that  we 
have  almost  eliminated — every  case  must  be  reported 
to  the  board  of  health.  That  this  so  evident  first 
step  is  not  taken  is  due  to  the  fact  that  boards  of 
health,  who  are  charged  with  the  administration  of 
health  laws,  do  not  enforce  the  law  requiring  this 
done ;  that  in  the  majority  of  states  these  laws  have 
still  to  be  enacted;  that  the  great  majority  of  phy- 
sicians will  not  report  these  cases  because  they  are  al- 
most always  connected  with  the  illegal  sex  relations 
of  men  which  they  wish  concealed ;  and  that  city  gov- 
ernments, through  their  courts  and  police,  permit 
these  dangerous  men  to  pass  freely  about  in  the  com- 

*For  the  above  and  additional  facts  see  chapters  XV.,  XVI., 
XVII.  of  "Medical  Gynecology,"  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Kelly  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University;  "Social  Diseases  and  Marriage,"  by  Dr.  Prince 
A.  Morrow  (Lee  Brothers  &  Co.);  Education  Pamphlet  No.  3  issued 
by  the  American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  29 
West  Forty-second  Street,  New  York  (a  reprint  of  one  of  Dr. 
Morrow's  most   important   chapters.) 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD  131 

(  munity  and  into  the  homes  where  prostitutes  never 
1  go,  because  of  the  established  idea  that  men  may  lead 
irregular  lives  not  permitted  women — the  so-called 
'  ' '  double  standards_of  niorals. ' ' 

The  use  oFlhe^  unscientific  terms  "sexual"  and 
"venereal  diseases"  makes  the  securing  of  laws  re- 
quiring the  reporting  of  such  diseases  unnecessarily 
difficult.  Both  syphilis  and  gonococcus  infection  are 
very  frequently  acquired  without  sexual  irregularities, 
for  example  from  a  common  cupL  or  jtowel,  from  kiss- 
ing, handshaking  or  other  open  contacts,  by  mar- 
riage or  birth;  all  these  being  agencies  for  com- 
municating other  diseases  also.  Neither  affects  the 
sex  organs  exclusively.  Both  are  systemic  diseases 
affecting  many  parts  of  the  system,  as  brain,  bones, 
eyes.  Both  resemble  other  diseases  (syphilis,  for  ex- 
ample, is  mistaken  for  tuberculosis  or  malaria)  and 
both  pass  under  other  commonly  used  names. 

Until  we  report  syphilis  and  gonococcus  infection 
as  such  to  boards  of  health,  avoiding  names  that  often 
stigmatize  patients  unjustly,  we    cannot    secure    en- 
forcement of  laws  sufficiently  effective  to  control  the 
pale  spirochete  and  gonococcus  as  we  control  other 
"germs."  Mothers  and  other  straight  thinking  women 
can  hasten  the  wholesome  mindedness  by  using,  in- 
stead of  these  obnoxious  terms,  the  scientific  names, 
in  which  there  is  no  suggestion  of  evil,  or  by  using  the 
term  ' '  social  diseases, ' '  being  mindful  that  tuberculo- 
sis,   typhoid    and  others    are  also    social     diseases — 
diseases  encouraged  by  present  social  customs. 
I        Education  for  parenthood  necessarily  brings  with 
j  it  the  insistence  that  government  shall  protect  parent- 
hood from   these     contagions   and   their   inseparable 
;    evils ;  and  as  government  does  not  do  so,  never  has 
i    been  known  to  do  so,  possibly  never  can  do  so,  as 


132  EDUCATION    FOR   PARENTHOOD 

the  great  majority  of  men  claim,  women  in  various 
countries  in  increasing  numbers,  and  with  the  co- 
operation of  many  of  the  best  men,  are  securing  the 
political  right  to  protect  their  own  and  the  children's 
lives  according  to  their  duty  to  the  laws  of  God.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  keen  students  of  social 
^relations  that  political  dominance  of  sex  is  wholly 
'  an  evil,  and  to  both  sexes;  and  that  the  only  right 
dominance  is  wisdom,  of  which  education  and  ex- 
perience are  giving  women  full  share  with  men.  Civil 
law  made  by  men  not  based  on  biologic  law  which, 
women  are  learning,  ends  in  disaster. 

The  wise  intelligence  of  mothers,  of  professional 
women  in  the  ministry,  in  law,  in  medicine,  in  sociol- 
ogy, and  in  education;  of  laboring  women  with  their 
sense  of  vtronging  their  children  when  they  go  out 
from  the  home  to  earn  their  food  and  roof ;  and  of  the 
other  mothers  who  see  their  dearest,  without  legal 
protection  or  redress,  contaminated,  body  and  soul,  out 
of  the  underworld,  whose  pollution  reaches  all  classes ; 
these  are  concentrating  on  the  demand  and  are  win- 
ning it.  It  is  an  indispensable  step  toward  the  es- 
tablishment of  right  sex  relations, 
study  After  this  study  of  heredity  comes_  study  of  phys- 

ical and  mental  development  of  child  and  adolescent ; 
the  influence  of  city  life  and  country  life  on  develop- 
ment, with  school  statistics  of  the  rates  of  growth  of 
boys  and  girls ;  the  kind  of  education  adapted  to  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  children ;  infant  mortality — the  effect 
on  it  of  women's  work  outside  the  home,  and  of  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  occupations  of  mothers  before  the  child 
is  born ;  governmental  and  social  efforts  to  reduce  in- 
fant mortality ;  the  pension  system  for  mothers,  paying 
a  small  sum  enabling  them  to  stay  at  home  and  nurse 
their  babies,  thus  saving  citizens  to  the  state,  as  gov- 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD  133 

ernments  have  hitherto  pensioned  soldiers ;  the  effects 
jof  institutional  care  of  babies  and  children  on  death 
rate  and  on  development ;  the  cause  of  reduced  birth 
rates,  and  the  duty  of  the  educated  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  race ;  children  in  industry,  and  its  legisla- 
tion ;  the  housing  problem ;  child  psychology ;  chil- 
dren 's  vices ;  education  of  the  will ;  a  study  of  nervous 
states  and  their  hygiene.* 

Such  topics  in  some  schools  are,  so  far  as  practic- 
able, made  vital  by  co-operation  with  neighboring 
nurseries,  hospitals,  or  other  institutions ;  and  there 
are,  of  course,  children's  classes  in  the  practice  school 
wherever  teachers  are  trained.  One  has  to  regret  that 
there  is  not  yet  a  course  for  men  complementary  to 
this  in  some  of  its  details.  Many  of  the  universities 
and  colleges  giving  these  courses  have  in  the  winter 
extension  courses  of  a  week  or  more,  whicTi~are  taken 
by  thousands  of  farmers'  wives  and  other  woineii.  In 
elementary  schools  competent  teachers  have  organized 
many  hundred  classes  of  mothers  and  of  parents, 
where  study  of  and  home  co-operation  in  the  education 
of  their  children  is  steadily  being  developed. 

What  some  teachers  are  doing  with  children  them-  7^*  ^o'k 
selves  can  best  be  indicated  by  a  few  typical  instances. 
Teachers  of  the  youngest  grade,  in  their  study  of 
flowers,  birds,  and  other  animals,  speak  of  mother 
flower  or  animal,  father  and  baby  flowers  and  animals, 
tracing  likenesses  between  parents  and  young,  com- 
paring their  ways  with  people's  ways,  establishing 
thus  indirectly  the  consciousness,  or,  better,  sub-con- 
sciousness that  every  life  is  from  fathers  and  mothers,  \^ 
from  eggs  or  from  the  mother's  body,  that  there  are 
fertilized  and  unfertilized  seeds,  that  hereditj"  and 

*For  fuller  account  of  this  and  other  courses,  see  report  of 
Educational  Session,  1910,  American  Association  for  Study  and  Pre- 
vention of  Infant  Mortality.  Address  1211  Cathedral  Street,  Baltimore. 


/ 


134  EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

environment  are  factors  in  life — not  using,  however, 
these  polysyllables. 

For  children  a  little  older,  nine  to  eleven,  a  teacher 
who  had  studied  biology  began  in  the  seventh  grade 
a  "continued  story,"  "The  Story  of  the  World  We 
Live  In, ' '  The  ' '  first  chapter ' '  was  brilliant  chemical 
experiments  illustrating  gases,  vapors,  condensations 
into  liquids  and  solids,  some  of  the  curious  properties 
of  water.  In  the  following  lessons  they  saw  simplest 
plant  life,  yeast  cells,  through  a  microscope,  and 
learned  how  they  multiplied.  They  took  for  their  text, 
"The  two  objects  of  every  living  thing  are  to  perfect 
itself  and  to  reproduce  itself."  This  text  was  re- 
peated, and  formed  the  line  of  study  for  every  plant 
through  the  year — how  it  grew  and  how  it  multiplied. 
The  next  year,  in  the  last  grammar  grade,  the  con- 
tinued story  used  the  same  text  for  every  animal 
studied,  how  it  grew,  perfecting  itself,  and  how  it 
multiplied,  giving  as  much,  but  no  more,  attention  to 
reproduction  (which  instructors  usually  omit)  than  to 
other  functions.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  in- 
structor was  a  student  of  biolog\%  and  the  teaching 
was  from  that  viewpoint. 

In  answer  to  my  question,  "Do  you  think  you  have 
taught  anything  of  clean  living?"  she  replied  em- 
phatically: "I  am  sure  I  have.  There  were  two  boys 
two  or  three  years  older  than  the  others.  They  were 
precocious  and  unclean  minded.  It  could  be  seen  in 
their  faces  in  the  beginning.  I  had  no  private  talk 
with  them ;  but  at  certain  x>oints  I  took  certain  pains 
to  have  them  understand.  Before  the  course  was  over 
there  was  a  complete  mental  revolution  and  moral  too, 
I  know  from  their  manner.  They  are  clean,  good  boys 
now,  and  twice  as  bright." 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 


135 


0^ 


There  is  a  grammar  school  in  the  tenderloin  dis- 
trict of  a  large  city.     The  sights  and  sounds  of  the 
district  educate  the  children  more  hours  in  the  year 
than  the  school.     The  innocently  expressed  ambition 
of  the  little  girls  was  to  be  a  "fancy  lady,"  whose 
idleness  and  gay  dresses  were  more  attractive  than 
!  their  toiling  mothers'  lives.     The  little  boys,  too,  ad- 
mired the  "fancy  ladies."     The  teachers,  startled  by 
the  children's  standards  and  unconscious  vulgarity 
in  many  ways,  begged  the  superintendent  of  schools 
to  have  a  physician  talk  to  them.    He  did  not  say,  as 
some:  "Let  it  alone.     You  only  set  them  to  talking 
and  make  matters  worse" ;  nor  as  another  said :  "You 
are  a  dirty  minded  woman  yourself,  or  you  wouldn't 
see  such  things."  He  asked  a  medical  woman  who 
•  had  been    a  successful  teacher  before  studying  medi- 
cine to  give  a  talk  to  the  girls ;  and  he  asked  a  medical 
man  to  do  it  for  the  boys.     Each,  ignorant  of  the 
other's  action,  refused,  saying  that  one  talk  from  a 
stranger  would  do  harm,  not  being  enough  to  cover  so 
,  much.     The  medical  %voman  offered  to  give  twelve  or 
(  fifteen  talks,  and  include  what  was  wanted.     When 
,  she  had  so  discussed  general  health  habits  that  she 
j  had  interested  them  and  changed  their  mental  attitude 
toward  their  bodies  and  toward  life  in  some  ways,  she 
then  safely  discussed  sex  and  its  duties.    After  a  few 
weeks  of  this  course,  the  boys  sent  a  petition  to  the 
principal,  "Can't  a  doctor    give    us    talks   like    the 
girls?"     The  medical  man  then  gave  three  talks  on 
general  hygiene,  and  finally  one  on  sex,  beginning  with 
laws  and  phenomena  in  plants  and  animals,  so  plac- 
I  ing  human  law  in  relation  to  universal  law. 

The  results  of  this  experiment  were  highly  satis- 
factory. Conduct,  conversation,  and  ideals  were  for 
the  time  changed    among    these    unfortunately    sur- 


For  the 
city  child 


Eesponslbility 
of  property 
owners  for 
vicious 
conditions 


136  EDUCATION  TOR  PARENTHOOD 

rounded  children;  but  it  would  be  a  miracle  if  these 

If ew  hours  could  undo  the  constant  influence  of  a. "red 
light"  neighborhood;  environment  such  as  every  large 
city  permits  for  some  of  its  children,  centrally  located 
for  the  sake  of  business,  yielding  extra  high  rentals 
to  people  of  large  means  who  own  such  real  estate, 
and  are  not  infrequently  found  among  subscribers  to 
philanthropies  and  to  churches.  Nearly  every  genuine 
attempt  to  break  up  such  resorts  is  halted  by  the  dis- 
covery at  the  tax  assessor's  office  that  the  landlord 
or  landlady  is  a  person  of  social  consideration.  These 
reasons:  "My  property  is  my  own  to  do  with  as  I 
please.  If  they  pay  their  rent,  I  can't  meddle  with 
their  morals" — the  philosophy  that  a  distinguished 
student  of  immoral  women  tells  me  is  theirs,  "My 
body  is  my  own  to  do  with  as  I  please.  I  can  earn 
more  money  this  way.  I  will  not  work  in  a  factory. ' ' 
Prostitution  is  largely  an  economic  problem  with  sev- 
eral sides.  These  school  authorities  consider  this  as 
the  handling  of  an  emergency  not  as  what  should  be 
done  regularly.  They  are  developing  systematic  in- 
struction in  nature  study  and  hygiene  as  rapidly  as 
capable  instructors  can  be  found.* 

In  a  large  city  is  a  teacher  of  biology  for  children 
from  twelve  to  sixteen,  who,  year  after  year  for  nine 
years,  has  taught  in  her  classes  of  both  boys  and 
girls,  how  every  plant  and  animal  they  studied  not 
only  grew,  but  how  it  multiplied.  She  says  enough, 
but  no  more  than  enough  to  set  them  almost  uncon- 
sciously to  reasoning  from  these  to  laws  of  human  life. 
They  actually  demonstrate  principles  of  heredity  while 
cross  fertilizing  flowers,  and  of  environment  in  other 

*Dr.  Zenner  gives  a  full  account  of  this  and  his  further  personal 
experience  in  talking  to  pupils  in  a  little  book,  "Education  in  Sexual 
Physiology  and  Hygiene"  (The  Robert  Clarke  Co.,  Cincinnati).  He 
makes  no  attempt  to  cover  the  subject,  but  contributes  what  we 
specially  need  just  now,    "clinical  evidence." 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD  137 

experiments.  This  instructor  and  other  biologists  are 
increasingly  including  the  discussion  of  contagions 
which  are  due  to  minute  vegetable  and  animal  organ- 
isms, ''germs";  and  in  the  list  of  commonest  con- 
jtagious  diseases  enumerate  syphilis  and  gonococcus 
infection  along  with  the  others,  perhaps  giving  a  few 
facts  and  statistics  concerning  each,  without  discrim- 
inating against  these  in  particular.  This  is  the  honest 
and  clean  minded  course. 

In  the  last  few  years  former  pupils  who  have  be- 
come parents  and  others  have  told  her  gratefully 
what  an  illumination  and  help  this  knowledge  had 
been  to  them.  She  says,  as  others  also,  that  quite 
without  her  anticipating  it  An_the_  Jjeginmng,  the 
undercurrent  of  vulgar  talk  among  the  children  spon- 
taneously ceases  as  they  advance  in  the  study.  The 
normal  curiosity  about  sex  and  new  life,  as  much  a 
part  of  human  nature  as  is  love  for  pleasure,  is  di- 
rected in  open  channels  where  it  can  be  enlightened 
healthfully,  without  defilement.  A  well  known  edu- 
cator of  large  experience  once  said  to  me,  reflectively 
passing  the  problem  through  his  mind,  "I  know  no 
man  in  the  schools  of  my  city  and  but  few  women 
that  I  would  be  willing  to  have  talk  to  my  boy  and 
girl  on  sex  matters."  "Would  you  be  willing  to  have 
them  take  a  sensible  course  in  elementary  biology?" 
He  replied  promptly:  "I  not  only  would  be  willing, 
but  glad  to  have  that. ' ' 

These  teachings,  so  rapidly  outlined,  agree  in  cer-     princf^eg'^ 
tain  very  important  points,  and  demonstrate  certain 
very  important  principles: 

1.  Not  all  teachers  should  undertake  this;  but 
only  those  prepared  to  teach  the  elementary  science  of 
living  things,  and  with  understanding  of  elementary 
sociology.  Such  do  little  with  books  or  talks.  Pupils 


138  EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

see  and  handle  plants  and  animals,  watching  life  pro- 
cesses with  minds  that  are  guided  to  search  for  law. 

2.  Direct  sex  instruction  in  class  is  not  given  even 
in  emergency  until  there  is  a  well  laid  groundwork 
in  the  renewal  of  life  in  all  nature ;  a  scientific  set- 
ting or  background,  with  a  scientific  vocabulary,  that 
eliminates  the  vulgar  attitude  toward  facts  of  sex  in- 
evitable when  they  stand  alone. 

We  have  made  the  deadening  mistake  of  omitting 
from  education  all  direction  of  the  duty  of  passing 
on  the  torch  of  life  entrusted  to  each  for  a  few  years. 
Education  has  been  limited  to  self-preservation.  Our 
sins  of  omission  cannot  be  undone.  The  sorrow  and 
suffering  have  been  and  left  their  blight. 

"We  are  in  some  danger,  in  our  haste  to  get  wise, 
of  going  to  the  other  extreme,  and  overemphasizing 
what  is  called  "sex  hygiene."  This  can  hardly  do 
more  harm  than  altogether  omitting  it ;  but  agitation 
for  ' '  instruction  in  sex  hygiene, ' '  and  for  societies  of 
"sex  hygiene"  seem  overemphasis.  What  we  should 
agitate  for  and  have  organized  effort  to  secure,  are : 

1.  Compulsory  control  of  syphilis  and  gOROcoccus 
infection  by  boards  of  health.  A  very  few  societies 
with  this  object  exist,  working  as  definitely  as  do  our 
many  anti-tuberculosis  societies  on  their  problem. 

2.  Efficient  teaching  of  home-making  ("domestic 
science,"  "home  economics").* 

3.  Sensible  teaching  of  the  science  of  living  things 
("nature  study,"  "school  gardening,"  botany,  zo- 
ology, elementary  biology)  as  compulsory  study  in 
elementary  and  secondary  schools. 

With  these  must  be  school  environment  and  prac- 
tices that  grow  healthier  children  to  become  healthy 

*For  a  discussion  of  Continuation  Schools  of  Home-making:,  see 
Transactions,  1911,  American  Association  for  Study  and  Preventioa 
of  Infant  Mortality. 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD  139 

parents,  and  that  are  essential  factors  in  "teaching 
hygiene."  Our  schools  encourage  tuberculosis,  ner- 
vous disorders,  and  some  other  ills  whose  prevention 
iis  outdoor  air  and  more  occupations  that  increase  the 
circulation,  which  means  stronger  heart,  lungs,  and 
.other  vital  organs.  If  home-making,  gardening  and 
industrial  training  are  wisely  developed,  they  will  im- 
prove the  health  of  parents  as  well  as  their  efficiency. 
Schools  should  aim  to  create  a  national  conscious- 
ness, a  sub-consciousness  developing  through  child- 
hood, that  life  is  a  trust  received  from  many  who  have 
gone  before,  to  he  guarded  and  hetterecTinTane' s  turn, 
and  passed  along  to  many  after — a  simple'  and  easily 
demonstrable  supplement  to  the  more  vague  jdea  of 
God,  stimulating  an  early  sense  of  responsibility  that 
is  to  moral  life  what  physical  exercise  is  to  bodily 
life.* 

*Furiaier  discussion  of  school  work  is  in  Educational  Pamphlet 
No.  2,  "FSi;.J£eachers,"  published  by  the  American  Society  of  Sani- 
tary and  MoralProphylaxis,  previously  mentioned.  Important  popular 
discussions  of  education  for  parenthood  are  in  the  Report  of  Con- 
ference on  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality,  1909,  American  Academy 
of  Medicine,  Easton,  Penn. ;  also  in  the  Reports  of  the  Association 
for  Study  and  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality  mentioned  in  previous 
footnote. 


XV 


PRACTICAL  APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

THEODATE  L.  SMITH,  Ph.  D. 
Clark  University 

N  its  broader  meaning  child  study  includes  the 
mental,  moral  and  physical  nature  of  the 
child,  and  in  all  three  of  these  departments 
there  has  been,  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
a  rapidly  multiplying  body  of  facts  whose  application 
to  problems  of  child  life  is  increasingly  recognized. 

The  practical  application  of  child  study  to  educa- 
tion may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  Pestalozzi  and 
Froebel,  neither  of  w^hom  had  any  training  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  scientific  psychology  though  their  intuitive 
genius  anticipated  some  of  its  results.     By  Froebel, 
a  new  point  of  view  was  introduced  into  education 
I   which  had  hitherto  been  conducted  from  the  stand- 
|i  point  of  the  adult.  Thenceforward  the  child  and  his 
;/  needs  began  to  be  considered  and  he  ceased  to  be 
treated  as  a  miniature  adult.    A  modern  development 
of  the  same  type  of  pedagogic  genius  united  wath 
scientific  training  and  based  upon  the  results  of  child 
study  is  Dr.  Montessori's  system  of  early  education 
which  has  recently  been  attracting  so  much  attention 
both  in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

So  fully  has  the  necessity  of  child  study  for  the 
solution  of  educational  problems  been  recognized  in 
recent  years,  that  experimental  pedagogy  has  now  be- 
come a  university  department.  Thus  far  its  methods 
have  been  largely  modifications  of  those  of  the  psycho- 

140 


APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY  141 

logical  laboratory,  adapting  them  to  children  of  school 
age.  Valuable  studies  have  been  made  on  the  mech- 
anism of  reading,  showing  the  length  of  line,  char- 
'  acter  of  type,  etc.,  best  suited  to  avoid  eye  strain.  Ex- 
periments on  memory  have  also  been  carried  out, 
showing  how  the  best  conditions  of  memorizing  may 
be  attained.  Tests  of  attention  and  fatigue  have  also 
brought  about  some  practical  results.  But  perhaps 
the  most  important  contribution  in  this  line  is  the 
development  of  mental  tests,  by  means  of  which  causes 
of  retardation  in  school  may  be  analyzed.  The  Binet 
tests  of  which  we  have  heard  much  during  the  last 
few  years  are  a  series  of  questions  or  simple  tasks  ar- 
ranged to  fit  the  years  from  three  to  thirteen.  If  a 
child  succeeds  in  the  tests  for  his  age  he  is  considered 
of  average  normal  intelligence ;  if  he  succeeds  in  those 
beyond  his  age,  he  is  regarded  as  above  the  average ; 
if  he  fails  in  those  two  years  below  his  age  there  is 
J  -suspicion  of  mental  defect  and  a  retardation  of  more 
than  two  years  renders  this  almost  certain,  unless  he 
has  been  hampered  by  physical  defects  which  may 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  retardation.  While  mak- 
ing no  pretense  to  the  finer  distinctions  necessary  for 
the  complete  diagnosis  of  individual  cases,  these  tests 
have  nevertheless  proved  a  valuable  aid  in  grading  in- 
telligence. This  is  not  only  a  great  gain  for  the  chil- 
dren themselves  but  it  relieves  the  regular  teacher  of 
much  unnecessary  strain,  for  it  is  the  unusual  chil- 
dren whether  they  are  above  or  below  the  normal  who 
are  the  teacher's  problems.  The  establishment  of 
special  classes  for  backward  and  defective  children 
'  confers  a  triple  benefit,  by  giving  such  children  them- 
*  selves  better  opportunities,  by  allowing  the  other  chil- 
dren to  advance  at  a  normal  rate  instead  of  being  kept 
/  back  for  the  sake  of  the  weaker,  and  by  leaving  the 

Vol.    1—10 


'jrJ^^ 


142  APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

teacher  free  to  devote  her  whole  energies  to  the  proper- 
ly graded  members  of  the  class.  But  the  study  of 
defective  children  has  by  no  means  l)een  confmed  "to 
i  school  problems.  Its  great  sociological  significance, 
j  its  relation  to  crime,  pauperism,  and  degeneracy  is 
now  being  recognized.  In  connection  with  the  Ju- 
venile Court  of  Chicago  there  has  been,  since  1909,  a 
psychopathic  clinic  where  children  have  been  tested 
to  determine  their  moral  responsibility  before^irand- 
ing  them  over  to  the  arm  of  the  law  as  delinquents. 
Occasionally,  too,  a  really  talented  child,  who  has 
been  the  victim  of  unfavorable  environment,  is  rescued 
by  this  clinic  and  given  an  opportunity  for  develop- 
ment. More  recently  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Seattle  has 
obtained  the  co-operation  of  the  Gatzert  Foundation 
of  Child  Welfare  which  is  a  department  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Washington,  and  a  physician,  aided  by  a 
psychologist,  gives  two  days  in  the  week  to  the  ex- 
amination of  court  children  so  that  the  judge's  de- 
cision may  be  based  on  expert  knowledge  of  the  phys- 
ical and  mental  condition  of  the  child  under  consid- 
eration. Psychological  clinics,  of  which  there  are  now 
ten  or  twelve,  in  the  United  States,  have  also,  through 
their  studies  of  heredity,  shown  the  necessity  of  per- 
manent custodial  care  for  the  feeble-minded,  for 
though  most  of  them  are  educable  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  and  may,  under  institutional  care,  become 
partly  or  even  wholly  self-supporting  and  lead  harm- 
less and  happy  lives,  they  always  remain  dependent 
upon  their  environment.  If  turned  out  into  the  world 
to  care  for  themselves  they  fail  in  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence and  recruit  the  ranks  of  paupers,  criminals 
and  degenerates,  and  worst  of  all,  almost  invariably 
reproduce  their  kind. 

Child  study  has  also  taught  us  that  speech  defects 


r 


APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY  143 

not  only  retard  a  child  in  his  school  progress,  but  re- 
act to  produce  mental  conditions  that  are  a  handicap 
to  his  mental  development.  In  America,  we  are  still 
behind  the  times,  in  this  respect,  but  nearly  every  Eu- 
j  ropean  country  has  made  provision  for  the  treatment 
'  of  such  children,  usually  in  connection  with  the  school 
'  system,  for  the  majority  of  cases  are  curable  and  the 
method  of  treatment  is  an  educational  process. 

Our  attitude  toward  the  delinquent  has  been  com- 
pletely changed  by  child  study  and  this  has  led  to 
the  establishment  of  juvenile  courts,  probation  sys- 
tems, junior  republics,  and,  best  of  all,  to  associations 
like  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Protective  Association, 
whose  object  is,  by  studying  the,. conditions  whicK'pro- 
duce  delinquency,  to  better  them,  so  that  children 
shall  be  prevented  from  becoming  delinquents  rather 
than  reformed  after  they  have  become  so. 

To  the  study  of  the  child  and  his  needs  we  also 
owe  the  playground  movement  and  the  campaign  \'^, 
against  child  labor.  However  much  it  may  be  desired 
by  those  who  have  looked  at  the  question  solely  from 
the  financial  point  of  view,  public  opinion,  enlightened 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  prematurely  en- 
forced labor,  will  no  longer  tolerate  the  employment 
,of  children  in  work  dangerous  to  life  and  limb,  or  in 
occupations  deadening  to  mind  or  tending  to  moral 
and  physical  degeneration;  for  although  it  is  impos- 
sible to  make  a  feeble-minded  child  normal,  it  is  quite 
possible  to  reduce  a  bright  child  to  a  state  of  autom- 
.  atism,  little  better  than  feeble-mindedness,  by  set- 
\  ting  him  at  work  under  unhygienic  conditions  at  an 
labsolutely  monotonous  task  for  ten  hours  a  day.  Child 
study  has  also  brought  about  beneficial  effects  in  the 
methods  of  dealing  with  dependent  children.  "We  no 
longer  point  with  pride  to  large,  spotlessly  kept  in- 


^/^^4t 


144  APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

)  stitutions,  where  children  are  marshalled  through  long 
corridors  in  military  order  for  school,  meals  or  recrea- 
tion, for  we  have  learned  that  to  make  a  human  ma- 
chine of  a  child  is  not  conducive  to  his  future  in- 
dependence and  usefulness  as  a  citizen. 

As  our  knowledge  of  the  physical  needs  of  the 
child  has  grown,  we  have  come  to  recognize  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  enormous  death  rate  of  in- 
fants is  due  to  preventable  causes,  and  various  move- 
ments for  the  prevention  of  infant  mortality  have 
developed,  with  the  result  that  in  localities  where  the 
death  rate  among  children  under  a  year  old  was  for- 
merly 25%  to  40%,  it  has  now  been  reduced  to  not 
only  less  than  half  this  but,  in  some  eases,  as  by  Dr. 
Miele's  work  in  Ghent,  from  between  30%  to  40% 
to  less  than  4%^  In  European  countries,  schools  for 
working  mothers  to  teach  them  how  to  care  for  their 
children,  are  rapidly  multiplying,  and  England  has 
now  97  of  these,  all  established  since  1907  and  main- 
tained in  a  variety  of  ways.  St.  Pancras,  in  London, 
the  first  to  be  established  in  England,  is  an  indepen- 
dent institution  modelled  after  Dr.  Miele's  plan  in 
Ghent,  but  some  are  connected  with  settlements ;  some 
are  conducted  by  local  boards  of  health  and  others  by 
philanthropic  societies  of  various  kinds.  A  unique  in- 
stitution is  the  Kaiserin  Auguste  Victoria  Haus, 
in  Berlin,  which  is  perhaps  best  described  as  a  physi- 
ological institute,  whose  object  is  the  scientific  investi- 
gation of  all  problems  relating  to  motherhood  and 
infancy  with  the  ultimate  aim  of  determining  the  best 
conditions  for  the  production  and  rearing  of  healthy 
children  and  thus  lessening  infant  mortality.  This  is 
a  national  institution  and  its  results  will  be  interna- 
tional. 

The   establishment   of   out-door  schools   must  be 


APPLICATION  OF  CHILD  STUDY  145 

credited  to  study  of  child  hygiene  and  these,  having 
proved  their  value  for  the  mental  as  well  as  for  the 
physical  development  of  the  child,  are  now  being  es- 
tablished for  normal  and  healthy  as  well  as  for  back- 
ward and  delicate  children. 

Child  study  has  also  enlarged  our  knowledge  of 
the  moral  nature  of  the  child.  Studies  of  children's 
faults  have  been  made  which,  in  pointing  out  the 
causes,  have  indicated  the  remedies,  or  better  still,  the 
means  of  prevention.  Of  especial  value  in  this  field 
are  the  studies  which  have  been  made  of  dishonesty, 
lying,  etc.  And  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  is  that 
knowledge  of  the  child  mind  which  has  taught  us  that 
on  the  question  of  the  origin  of  life  and  the  normal 
development  of  its  functions,  instruction  must  not  be 
left  to  chance  information  picked  up  from  companions 
or  perchance  from  the  street,  but  must  be  given  in  a 
rational,  simple  and  scientific  form,  so  that  it  may  be  a 
safeguard  from  evil. 


XVI 


ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

PROF.  O.  H.  BAKELESS 

Department  of  Pedagogy,  State  Normal  School, 
Bloomsburg,  Pa. 


Definition  of 

chUd 

study 


I 


ef 


HILD  study  sets  for  its  task  the  problem  of 
the  child  genetically,  from  the  side  of  its 
physical,  its  mental  and  its  normal  nature.  It 
aims  to  make  child  rearing  scientific.  And 
why  not  ?  Is  not  the  ' '  human  plant ' '  greater  in  pos- 
sibility and  destiny  than  plant  life  about  us,  or  the 
lower  animal  life  of  the  earth?  American  educators 
and  scholars  are  deeply  and  enthusiastically,  I  may 
say  sanely,  wedded  to  this  movement.  Italy,  Germany, 
Poland,  and  many  other  countries  have  toiled  and  are 
toiling  wisely  that  the  next  generation  may  stand  on 
a  higher  and  firmer  scaffolding  of  health,  intelligence 
and  morality  than  the  present.  Far-away  Japan, 
alert,  and  breathing  the  invigorating  air  of  progress, 
recognizes  in  this  movement  the  hope  of  her  energetic 
race.  We  would  breed  superior  men  and  women  as 
II  well  as  superior  dogs  and  horses. 

In  the  results  of  the  last  decade  of  research  on  this 
subject  we  hear,  faintly  perhaps,  but  clear  and  beau- 
tiful as  divine  music,  the  note  of  a  sane  pedagogy 
based  on  an  abiding  foundation ;  a  surer_note  of  pro- 
gress than  has  thrilled  the  world  since  Christ  said: 
' ' Suffer  little  children— and  forT)Td~fh"em  not. "  "The 
child  is  the  keynote  to  the  regeneration  of  the  race." 
The  mute,  dumb  impulse  of  the  child  is"  the  index 

146 


ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY       147 


\  finger,  the  humble  beginning,  the  hint  towards  all 
that  the  wise  men  would  do  for  his  development. 

Today  the  person  nearest  the  child,  best  knowing 
him  in  his  helplessness  and  beauty,  commands  a  re- 
spectful hearing  wherever  the  child  is  concerned ;  the 
parent,  the  teacher,  the  pastor,  the  guardian  of  child- 
hood everywhere,  hears  his  message  wdth  gladness  and 
humility.  All  earnest,  progressive  teachers  hear  the 
message  and  strive  to  apply  its  teachings.  Literature 
upon  this  subject  in  recent  years  is  multiplying  apace 
and  growing  stronger  and  more  authoritative  with 
each  output.  The  future  of  the  subject  is  secure.  Child 
\  study  has  made  the  world  realize  that  the  school  is 
•  for  the  child  and  not  the  child  for  the  school. 

Physical  knowledge  of  the  child  is  a  cash  asset  in 
all  dealing  with  him.  What  an  arraignment  of  facts 
have  we  here!  Knowledge  rightly  understood  and 
applied  is  power.  Knowledge  of  the  children  physi- 
cally would  make  for  millions  annually.  Countlthe  loss 
to  effective  growth  because  of  the  neglect  of  the  sight 
of  the  children.  Indifference  to  their  seating  with  re- 
gard to  the  light,  heat  and  ventilation;  best  condi- 
tions for  study,  wide  assignment  of  lessons  and  hours 
of  study,  improper  conditions  for  best  work,  ineffective 
distribution  of  light,  harmful  influences  of  reflections ; 
the  dust  and  filth  and  carelessness  that  foster  the 
spread  of  diseases  that  little  children  are  subject  to, 
and  this  barely  introduces  the  list  of  conditions  that 
obtain  in  the  school  buildings  everywhere.  Thou- 
sands of  teachers  do  not  attempt  to  enlighten  them- 
selves on  these  subjects.  They  do  not  know  boys  and 
girls  or  their  physical  needs,  take  no  thought  of  their 
general  welfare.  How  often,  by  the  merest  accident, 
we  find  the  pathetic  victim  of  deafness  due  to  a  dozen 
causes  wrongl/  placed  in  school,  losing  time,  becom- 


Knowledgo 
of  the 
physical 
chllda_c|*k 
assef^ 


148       ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

ing  careless,  indifferent,  peevish,  a  case  of  arrested 
development,  because  of  his  lack  of  power  to  profit 
by  the  teaching,  due  to  the  defect  which  a  change  of 
seating  alone  or  consideration  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher  might  improve.  How  often  a  case  of  bodily 
exhaustion  or  brain  fatigue,  due  to  irregular  hours, 
nervous  strain,  insufficient  food,  and  a  thousand  other 
causes,  is  overlooked  week  after  week,  counteracting 
the  influences  of  the  school  room,  wasting  time  and 
money,  the  teacher  in  despair  thinking  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  do  anything,  when  a  vigorous  study  of 
conditions  and  a  knowledge  by  the  people  of  facts, 
carefully  tabulated,  forced  upon  the  attention  of  the 
school  authorities,  would  cause  modification  or  re- 
moval. Good  teachers  treat  health  and  physical  con- 
ditions as  of  importance  comparable  with  intellectual 
progress,  take  account  of  bodily  conditions  of  pupils, 
co-operate  with  parents  and  authorities  and  allow  for 
them  in  educative  work.  Scores  of  earnest  men  have 
wrought  heroically  but  in  vain  if,  for  want  of  read- 
ing and  study  of  their  formulated  work,  a  rational  first 
hand  sympathetic  study  of  every  child  from  the  physi- 
cal side  is  not  made.  As  a  teacher  discovers  cases  of 
backwardness,  slowness,  dullness,  lack  of  interest,  poor 
health,  he  will  come  into  close  and  vital  touch  with 
the  work  of  his  classes,  with  the  problems  of  instruc- 
tion, with  the  life  of  the  school  and  with  the  com- 
munity as  he  can  in  no  other  way.  ' '  The  practical 
lessons  of  child  study  are  always  the  problems  of  the 
home  and  the  family  as  well  as  the  school,  and  both 
will  be  drawn  together  and  economic  problems  of  in- 
calculable value  will  have  their  solution  begun."  An 
intelligent,  sympathetic  student  of  children  may  be- 
come an  apostle  of  life  for  a  community.  "Biolog- 
ically, the  whole  problem  of  transmission  of  life  is 


ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY      149 


involved  here. ' '    Sound  bodies,  sane  minds,  noble  souls 
well  adjusted  to  their  environment,  is  God 's  plan. 

Study  the  child,  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions and  under  the  most  unfavorable,  and  thus  make 
the  school  room  tell  on  the  next  generation.  Lead  the 
young  teacher  into  the  understanding  and  enjoyment 
of  the  study  of  these  problems,  or  drive  him  out  of 
the  teacher's  profession.  The  problems  of  this  age 
are  too  momentous  for  a  mere  tyro  in  the  work. 

A  knowledge  of  the  mental  constitution  of  the  child 
considered  from  the  genetic  side,  is  another  powerful 
cash  asset  in  education.  The  teacher  must  realize  that 
nature  and  nurture  must  work  together  to  build  the 
man  from  this  growing  cell  mass  he  calls  the  child. 
He  must  accept  the  work  of  nature,  allow  for  her 
forces,  know  instincts  and  tendencies,  as  the  starting 
point  of  all  that  may  be  done  for  the  child.  He  must 
recognize  dormant  capacities  and  stimulate  them  to 
proper  growth.  To  teach  boys  and  girls  without  re- 
gard to  their  instincts  and  tendencies  ends  usually  in 
their  demoralization  and  the  humiliation  of  the 
teacher.  It  is  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  and,  con- 
sequently, a  money  loss  to  the  community. 

The  study  of  genetic  psychology',  the  study  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  developing  child  mind  from 
stage  to  stage,  the  study  of  adolescence,  makes  it  alone 
possible  for  a  teacher  rightly  to  stimulate  mind  and 
provoke  healthy  response — his  only  business.  To  be 
able  to  favor  and  encourage  right  tendencies,  to  rightly 
direct  and  guide  favorable  ones,  tendencies  valuable 
\to  the  individual  and  to  the  community,  and  to  in- 


hibit wrong  ones,  implies  knowledge  and  skill  on  the 
'ipart  of  the  teacher,  and  comes  only  from  an  exhaus- 
tive and  self-denying  study  of  children  themselves, 
and  books  about  them.  Education  can  be  economic 
only  as  these  principles  are  applied  at  every  step. 


A  knovledgo 
of  tb9  mental 
eonstitution 
of  the  chUd 
»  ctMk  asset 


uM 


150       ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

Dam  up  the  natural  channels  of  the  stream  and  dev- 
astation and  ruin  will  follow  quickly.  Thwart  the 
natural  bent  and  trend  of  the  boy  or  girl  and  dire  re- 
sults follow.  Oh!  the  pathos  of  misapplied  instruc- 
tion, or  training  out  of  time — the  tragedies  of  these 
wasted  lives  and  lost  souls !  America  is  lpsin_g  mil- 
P  '  lions  yearly  because  of  the  work  that  was  misunder- 
stood, mismanaged  or  undone  in  the  homes  and  schools 
of  a  generation  ago.  A  child's  mind  is  active,  will 
continue  to  be  so  whether  the  teacher  encourages  or 
opposes  it.  It  resents  restraint,  monotony,  futility. 
The  teacher  who  keeps  the  ear  of  his  soul  close  to  the 
mute  lips  of  childhood  will  learn  to  preserve  intact, 
the  force  and  freshness  of  the  original  instinct  of 
mental  activity  by  giving  it  exercise  of  the  right  kind 
at  the  right  time  and  rewarding  the  child's  effort 
with  satisfaction,  thus  gradually  leading  the  aimless, 
random  thing  from  weakness  to  strength  and  power. 
The  money-sayed  in  school  work  by  putting  joy 
into  the  school,  by  working  with  the  child  rather  than 
against  its  nature,  is  incalculable.  How  can  the  teacher 
do  this  if  she  knows  not  the  child's  intellectual  equip- 
ment, in  general  and  particular,  and  child  life  as  it 
manifests  itself  in  each  individual  pupil?  A  mere 
college  girl,  inexperienced  but  well  trained  in  the 
needs  and  nature  of  the  child,  with  a  love  and  sym- 
pathy for  child  life,  took  a  group  of  children  and  by 
working  upon  their  play  instinct,  their  curiosity,  their 
love  for  the  story,  their  dramatic  instinct,  so  success- 
fully built  up  their  language  power,  their  abilit}'  to 
read,  to  spell,  to  write,  their  enjoyment  and  apprecia- 
tion for  school,  that  in  two  years  she  accomplished 
more  than  could  ever  be  accomplished  by  the  old 
routine ;  and  best  of  all,  in  the  doing  of  it  made  school 
such  a  dream  of  delight  to  her  children  that  all  life 
was  ennobled  thereby.    The  old  time  routine  teacher 


ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY      151 

would  sit  by  incapable  of  recognizing  the  sound  prin- 
ciples underlying  the  work,  declaring  the  whole  pro- 
cess hypnotic  or  pure  chicanery. 

Earnest  students  of  the  child  by  the  score  have 
solved  many  problems  of  the  elementary  school,  prob- 
lems of  number  work,  observation  and  object  lesson, 
reading,  type  and  printing  of  text  books,  reading  in- 
terests of  boys  and  girls,  moral  and  religious  interests, 
adolescent  changes,  tastes  and  tendencies ;  norms  of 
I  psychological  age  in  grading,  methods  of  history  and 
'  geography  in  relation  to  interests,  measuring  general 
ability.     In  drawing  and  music  and  manual  training 
the  way  has  been  pointed  out,  and  principles  applied 
have  wrought  a  wonderful  change ;  rational  approach 
to  nature  study  and  application  of  the  play  instinct 
in  education  have  been  made.    Familiarity  on  the  part 
of  the  elementary  teachers  with  this  work  would  mean 
practically  an  enhancement  of  value  for  every  minute 
of  the  school  day.     Every  failure  on  the  part  of  a 
pupil  to  understand  arithmetic  or  algebra  or  to  enjoy 
j  history  or  geography  is  a  psychological  problem  set 
I  for  the  teacher-student  to  solve,  and  when  solved  it  is 
I  a  cash  asset  to  the  community. 

"The  child  needs  to  develop  to  the  utmost  each 
stage  through  which  he  passes,  often  to  be  retarded 
more  than  to  be  accelerated ;  to  experience  all  the  es- 
sentials the  race  has  experienced  in  its  long  climb  up- 
ward,"  says  an  expert.  Consider  the  statement  and 
then  remember  how  parents  and  teachers  constantly 
violate  the  truth  of  the  physical  and  intellectual  de- 
velopment of  the  child.  If  grades  are  good,  percents 
are  high  and  children  pass,  what  matters  it  whether 
the  stage  of  development  has  been  secured  or  not? 
The  texts  of  Hall,  Baldwin,  Preyer,  Taylor,  Cham- 
berlain, King,  Tanner,  Kirkpatrick,  S^vift,  O'Shea 
and  others  shoul/i  be  in  every  teacher's  hands  and 


152      ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY 


k  knowledge 
>f  the  chUd'B 
QOTkl  nature 
ind 

levelopment 
k  easb 

l8Mt 


read  persistently.  The  view  of  consciousness  in  the 
growing,  the  genetic  view,  tends  at  once  to  bring  him 
into  closer  touch  with  life  and  growth  in  his  school 
room,  and  permits  him  to  see  "the  whole  of  the  an- 
cestral human  race  peering — sad-eyed,  half-fright- 
ened— at  him  through  the  eyes  of  the  little  child." 
Problems  of  temperament,  of  differences  of  types,  of 
eye  and  ear  mindedness,  of  sex  differences,  of  succes- 
sive ages  or  stages,  all  throng  upon  his  attention  as 
1  possible  assets  as  he  solves  them  and  sets  the  answers 
iOn  the  credit  side  of  his  professional  ledger. 

Conduct  must  also  look  to  the  mental  impulse  and 
instincts  of  the  child  for  its  beginnings ;  then  habit  de- 
termines the  trend  or  direction  the  stream  of  behavior 
takes,  and  the  child's  environment — home,  school  and 
community — give  the  child  his  ideal.  To  the  extent 
that  this  principle  is  understood  will  the  guardian  of 
I'the  child  rightly  stimulate  and  guide  him  into  the 
Iways  of  safe  moral  development.  Child  study  has 
the  last  word  to  say  on  this  also,  but  has  not  yet  said 
it.  Every  one  with  teaching  sympathy  who  knows  its 
conclusions  can  safely  guide  the  young.  Others  are 
experimentalists.  This  knowledge,  wisely  applied  in 
the  home  or  the  school  or  by  civic  authorities  in 
dealing  with  the  child,  will  mean  millions  to  the  home 
and  to  the  community.  The  study  of  the  tendencies 
to  crime  and  the  causes  of  it  has  revealed  much. 
/"Every  child  kept  from  being  a  criminal  wins  for  the 
State  a  good  citizen ;  but  a  child  left  to  be  a  criminal 
/by  neglect  is  a  vicious  parasite,  and  whether  free  or 
imprisoned,  feeds  on  the  people — is  a  dead  weight  on 
the  body  politic." 

The  moral  trend  of  the  child  depends  upon  his 
family  life  to  a  great  extent.  What  the  teacher  can 
do  for  him  depends  almost  entirely  on  his  knowledge 
of  the  child,  his  ideals  and  outside  conditions.     Ten- 


ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY      153 

dencies  to  wrongdoing  can  best  be  understood  and 
worked  with  by  knowing  conditions.  ' '  Children  often 
are  vicious,  not  necessarily  because  parents  are  poor  or 
j  ignorant,  but  because  worthy  examples  to  imitate  and 
Jhigh  ideals  to  emulate  are  wanting;  opportunity  to 
wrongdoing  means  gratification,  and  unworthy  habits 
are  formed  quickly  and  surely."  Dirt  and  defilement, 
deviltry  and  disease,  destruction  and  death,  are  an 
unfortunate  and  alliterative  array.  But  it  is,  never- 
theless, a  breviary  of  immorality  and  criminality. 
"Children  become  moral,  cultured,  educated,  by  a  pro- 
cess of  gradual  upbuilding  and  unfolding,  healthy 
exercise  of  cerebral  cells,  or  otherwise,  as  their  ex- 
perience or  training  warrants.  At  any  age  between 
six  and  sixteen  the  children  of  charitable  institutions, 
industrial  and  reform  schools  are  reported  undersize 
and  underweight;  dwarfed  bodies  mean  dwarfed 
j(  minds  and  anti-social  attitudes.  All  this  is  loss  to  the 
State.  Poorly  nourished  frames  do  not  go  hand  in 
hand  with  healthy  brain  and  nerve  cells,  clear  normal 
intellects  and  moral  development. 

Children,  as  a  rule,  act  in  their  lives  the  influences 
that  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Warner 
is  responsible  for  the  statement  that  one-third  of  all 
the  criminals  have  a  warped  and  defective  mental  de- 
velopment. Something  of  a  key,  this,  to  the  unlock- 
ing of  the  secret  of  the  "bad  boy,"  "the  degenerate," 
Ithe  inmates  of  the  truants'  school.  The  cleaning  up 
process,  whether  of  individuals,  of  homes  or  of  schools, 
begins  from  within.  Where  growth  ceases,  decay  be- 
gins. The  world  wants  three-sided  men,  not  one-sided 
ones,  everything  on  its  highest  level.  A  boy  plays  as 
a  man  works,  with  his  whole  soul.  Fresh  air  and  good 
food  and  active  minds  and  ennobling  ideals  are 
economy  in  education.  Parkless  towns,  crowded  tene- 
ments,  no  provisions  for  the  activity  of  childhood, 


/ 


154      ECONOMIC  WORTH  OF  CHILD  STUDY 

dam  the  child  into  a  perverted  adulthood.  "When  some 
of  our  schools  and  customs  have  been  dug  out  of  the 
ruts  of  antiquity,  and  the  little  child  shall  be  permit- 
ted to  lead  his  instructor  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
there  will  be  money  enough  to  run  the  schools.  Cam- 
paigns against  ugliness,  against  improper  and  exces- 
sive picture  shows,  bad  advertisements,  filthy  streets 
and  lack  of  civic  pride,  will  not  be  amiss  in  summing 
up  educational  economic  conditions. 

' '  A  boy  will  try  to  be  what  he  thinks  you  think  he 
is."  Faith  in  a  boy  helps  him.  He  is  bursting  out 
with  energy  to  do.  Let  him  help  the  other  fellow. 
To  the  point  is  this  brief  extract  from  an  item  of  news 
in  a  recent  Outlook:  "They  certainly  used  to  be  a 
tough  gang,  but  this  year  since  the  playground  come, 
they  don't  give  me  no  trouble,"  said  the  playground 
police  officer.  "The  boy  without  a  playground  is 
father  to  the  man  without  a  job."  Idleness  and  va- 
grancy in  the  man  are  a  natural  product  of  a  boyhood 
without  opportunity  for  wholesome  play.  There  is 
close  connection  between  the  social  spirit  that  finds 
expression  in  wholesome  sport  and  the  social  spirit 
that  finds  expression  in  public  service.  The  dead 
routine  in  education  is  giving  way ;  schools  no  longer 
kill,  but  make  alive.  The  field  is  vast,  far-reaching, 
hopeful.  Whichever  way  we  turn,  body,  mind, 
morals,  school,  church,  state,  the  way  of  econom3'  and 
the  way  of  perfection,  are  through  an  adequate  knowl- 
edge of  that  little  squirming,  crjdng,  roguish,  laugh- 
ing, joyous,  healthy  bundle  of  possibilities  that  brings 
gladness  to  the  home  and  heart,  joy  to  the  life  and 
hope  for  the  future. 

Inspirational  leadership  on  the  part  of  teachers, 
rather  than  playing  the  part  of  restraining  police,  will 
take  the  school  work  on  easy  grades,  in  big  sweeping 
curves,  toward  perfection  on  half  fare  tickets. 


XVII 
SYMPATHETIC  PARENTHOOD 

MRS.  THEODORE  W.  BIRNEY 
Founder  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers 

ONCE  saw  a  mother  standing,  white  with  unstring  ot 
anger,  over  a  little  girl  of  six,  who  was  kneel-  children 
ing,  and  with  trembling,  tiny  uplifted  hands, 
was  pleading:  "0,  mamma,  do  not  beat  me, 
please  do  not  beat  me, ' '  and  painful  as  is  the  recollec- 
tion, I  always  recall  the  experience,  at  least  mentally, 
whenever  I  am  to  lift  my  voice  before  such  an  au- 
dience as  this  in  behalf  of  childhood,  for  my  platform 
courage,  like  that  of  all  the  dear  women  associated 
with  me,  in  this  work,  from  the  beginning  and  since, 
is  decidedly  of  an  acquired  character,  and  I  need  this 
call  to  my  emotional  nature,  ere  I  can  forget  you 
and  myself  in  my  theme. 

Your  heart  aches  with  mine  at  this  picture,  be- 
cause you  know  that  it  is  daily  an  action  in  millions 
of  homes  throughout  the  world — not  your  home,  not 
mine,  but  in  homes  of  others  less  fortunate  in  their 
environment  and  opportunities  than  we,  the  un- 
trained, the  irresponsible  mother.  "Was  I  angry  with 
her?  No,  how  dared  I  be,  when  I  knew  so  well  the 
limitations  of  her  life?  A  great  pity  filled  my  heart, 
and  asking  her  to  step  aside  I  remonstrated  with  her 
as  tenderly  as  I  could.  In  a  few  moments  all  signs 
of  rage  had  disappeared,  and  she  was  sobbing  and 
saying,  "Ah,  Madam,  if  somebody  had  only  talked 
to  me  like  this  before,  I  might  have  been  a  better 

155 


156 


sy:mpathetic  parenthood 


Subjectlre 
enffering  of 
cMldxen 


Need  of 

tr&lnlng  for 
parenthood 


mother."  Such  opportunities  come  to  us  all,  and  no 
mistaken  idea  of  interfering  with  other  people's  chil- 
dren should  ever  deter  us,  in  hovel  or  palace,  from 
speaking  the  word  which  may  stay  any  hand  lifted 
in  wrath  against  the  most  helpless  of  all  beings  on 
earth — a  little  child.  There  is  no  need  to  elaborate 
upon  such  an  incident ;  you  know  all  the  other  ills 
which  surround  the  children  of  this  poor  mother  and 
others  of  her  kind.  So  much  for  the  objective  suf- 
fering of  unfortunate  childhood,  that  which  he  who 
runs  may  read! 

There  is  another  phase  of  childish  suffering  which 
is  so  subtle  that  only  they  who  not  only  truly  live 
with  their  children,  but  are  always  earnestly  seeking 
for  knowledge  through  the  medium  of  child  study, 
can  ever  hope  to  fathom  its  mystery,  and  that  is  the 
subjective  life  of  the  child,  all  that  its  mind  holds 
of  so-called  childish  griefs,  fears,  disappointments  and 
anxieties.  "We  shall  not  be  sympathetic  mothers  if 
we  cling  to  the  old  idea  that  there  are  no  such  things 
[as  childish  griefs.  Grief  is  grief,  whether  it  be  over 
a  broken  toy  or  a  broken  life ;  the  results,  I  grant  you, 
are  widely  different,  but  the  mother  who  smiles  lightly 
over  broken  toys  may  live  to  weep  over  broken  lives. 

Some  of  the  saddest  letters  I  have  ever  read  were 
'  written  by  people  whose  characters  had  been  warped 
through  a  misunderstood  childhood.  And  now  I  ask 
you — if  you  were  going  to  build  a  valuable  house, 
to  whom  would  you  go,  an  architect  with  little  knowl- 
edge and  limited  experience,  or  to  one  who  had 
made  the  most  of  large  opportunities?  Has  it  oc- 
curred to  you  to  compare  the  vocation  of  child  train- 
ing to  that  of  architecture?  It  is  all  building,  save 
that  one  is  a  structure  for  temporal  use  alone,  while 
character  building  is  for  eternity.     And  as  a  wise 


SYMPATHETIC  PARENTHOOD      157 

architect  gathers  ideas  from  the  architecture  of  many 
lands,  so  should  they  who  have  the  care  of  children 
.  seek  for  enlightenment  as  to  their  spiritual,  physical, 
'  moral  and  mental  needs.  I  place  the  spiritual  first, 
for  I  believe  that  the  youngest  child  may  drink  in 
spirituality  from  the  spiritually  minded  about  it.  And 
now  where  would  you  seek  for  this  enlightenment 
which  is  to  make  the  child  into  the  ideal  man  or 
woman !  "Would  you  depend  upon  your  own  personal 
experience  for  guidance  ?  Not  if  you  were  a  thoughtful 
man  or  woman;  you  would  cherish  your  experience 
and  discoveries,  but  you  would  experiment  as  little  as 
possible ;  you  would  seek  a  basis  for  your  work  of  the 
highest  obtainable  authority ;  you  would  carefully 
read  and  ponder  over  the  books  of  Susan  E.  Blow 
and  Elizabeth  Harrison  and  others  I  might  mention. 
I  grant  you  the  authors  of  these  books  are  not  all 
physical  mothers,  but  their  knowledge  of  child  nature 
is  great  and  accurate  and  they  have  given  me  more 
light  upon  my  own  problems  of  motherhood  than  all 
the  physical  mothers  I  have  ever  known.  "Would  you 
depend  upon  your  limited  knowledge  to  guide  the  bark 
\  of  life  through  that  mysterious  sea  of  adolescence,  so 
vast  in  its  possibilities  for  good  or  evil? 

There  is  a  book  written  long  ago  by  Herbert 
Spencer,  entitled  "Education."  If  you  think  child 
study  through  other  mediiims  than  your  own  limited 
experience  a  theory,  read  that  book ;  it  will  change 
your  conviction  as  no  argument  of  mine  can  ever  do. 

I  am  sometimes  asked  is  not  the  work  of  the  Con-     For  what 
gress    purely    theoretical.      'I    think    every    mother     wo^ks""""^^^^ 
knows  best  how  to  bring  up  her  own  children." 

Does  the  observation  of  any  of  you  confirm  such  a 
statement  ? 

There  are  ideal  mothers,  I  grant  you,  who  never 

Vol.    1— H 


158      SYMPATHETIC  PARENTHOOD 

belonged  to  a  Mothers'  Club,  who  never  read  a  line 
on  child  study,  but  they  are  women  vvith  a  genius  for 
motherhood;  yet  even  they,  with  tiieir  snow-crowned 
heads,  will  willingly  tell  you  of  the  penalities  which 
ignorance  cost  them. 
,        You  know  the  Mothers'  Congress  and  its  work; 
/'  it  is   a   living  epitome  qI  sympathetic   motherhood. 
As  Daniel  Boone,  the  brave  pioneer  in  Kentucky,  plac- 
'  ing  his  ear  to  the  earth  'neath  the  shade  of  primeval 
.1  forests,   exclaimed  to   his  companions:   "I   hear   the 
tramp^^  unborn  millions,  who  will,  in  the  years  to 
come,  cross  this  land."    So  we  tell  you,  we  are  work- 
ing, not  only  for  the  children  of  today,  but  for  the 
untold  numbers  who  are  even  now  journeying  earth- 
ward, andjg^ho  will  rise  up]]a^M51ess  you  for  what 
you  an d_e very__oth^r_orgamzationin~^he   world  is 
doing  to  give  us  the  ideal  civilization. 

Are  there  any  lonely  men  or  women  here  tonight, 
any  whose  hearts  are  burdened  with  grief  for  the  liv- 
ing or  dead,  whose  lives  for  one  reason  or  another 
seem  narrow  and  shut  in?  If  such  there  be,  may  I 
remind  them  of  the  message,  ' '  A  little  child  sjiajj.  lead 
them"?  Following  that  leading,  open  your  Jbearts 
and  minds,  and  see  the  sunlight  which  rests  in  all 
fields  of  true  service,  but  mark  well,  that  service  which 
offers  richest  compensation  for  a]l  the  ages  is  to  be 
found  in  those  fields  wherein  childhood  rests. 
/  We  have  a  present  need  of  our  hospitals,  asylums, 

j     almshouses,  prisons  and  reformatories ;  they  are  merci- 
'      ful,  humane,  but  justice  and  common  sense  alike  de- 
mand that  the  necessity  for  them  should  diminish,  as 
the  value  of  preventive  over  reformative  work  is  un- 
derstood. 

V     I  know  one  dearly  loved  woman,  not  a  thousand 
Smiles  away,  who  has  no  children  of  her  own,  but  whose 


/ 


SYMPATHETIC  PARENTHOOD      159 

beautiful  maternal  spirit  broods  over  the  childhood  of 
the  world,  and  whose  life  is  spent  in  their  service. 
When  the  maternal  longing  is  strongest  upon  her,  she 
sends  messages  to  other  mothers  which  may  help  them 
to  a  realization  of  their  blessings  as  well  as  their  re- 
sponsibilities. The  world  is  full  of  sympathy,  but  as 
perfect  love  must  embrace  justice,  so  must  sympathy 
in  its  highest  development  embrace  wdsdom.  There  is 
the  mistaken  sympathy  which  dwarfs  the  objects  upon 
which  it  is  bestowed,  which  fosters  weakness  rather 
than  strength. 

The  sympathy  which  does  not  result  in  action  is  sympathy 
mere  sentimental  emotion,  and  our  soul  growth  de-  laton^ 
mands  that  we  shall  express  our  loving  thought  in 
service  of  .some  kind.  Cultivate  sympathy  in  your 
children,  but  beware  lest  you  overdo  this  and  make 
them  morbid.  Like  all  other  great  truths,  it  is  best 
taught  by  example.  Children  are  naturally  sym- 
pathetic. Looking  from  my  window  one  day  on  the  eve 
of  a  summer  departure,  I  saw  two  little  figures  going 
slowly  do-«Ti  the  path,  and  carefully  sprinkling  some- 
thing as  they  went.  Upon  inquiry  at  luncheon  as  to 
what  they  were  doing,  the  eldest  replied,  "Oh, 
mamma,  we  are  sprinkling  bread  crumbs,  so  the  poor 
little  ants  won't  get  hungry  while  we  are  away." 
Many  heart-broken  lonely  men  and  women  suffer  so 
much  before  they  attain  to  joy  and  sympathy 
with  others  and  of  service  to  them,  and  this  they  might 
often  have  been  spared,  had  they  been  encouraged  to 
think  of  others  in  their  childhood. 

If  we  could  only  know  all  that  a  little  child  feels 
and  thinks,  we  should  be  so  tender,  so  considerate  of 
them;  we  hurt  them  in  a  thousand  ways,  we  grown- 
ups; we  are  so  absorbed  with  our  point  of  view,  we 
cannot  see  theirs,  and  some  mothers  and  fathers  never 


160  SYMPATHETIC    PARENTHOOD 

realize  the  full  need  for  sympathy  until  the  baby 
hands  can  no  longer  give  that  little  tug  at  coat  or 
skirts  with  which  all  parents  are  familiar,  and  the 
baby  voice  has  passed  forever  from  earth,  and  there 
remains  only  that  unending  tugging  at  the  heart- 
strings, which  we  call  vain  regret. 

What  was  it  which  made  me  feel  at  home  with  the 
Mexicmn  women  as  I  passed  their  little  adobe  houses 
and  saw  them  sitting  in  the  doorways  with  their 
babies  ?  The  bright  answering  smile  they  always  gave 
me  when  I  smiled  upon  their  little  ones  and  said  bebe, 
ninya,  or  ninyo,  as  the  case  might  be !  I  'm  glad  the 
first  Spanish  word  I  ever  learned  was  ninya,  which 
means  little  child. 

Eight  years  ago  I  made  the_plea  at  the  First  Na- 
tional Congress  of  Mothers  that  this  work  should  be 
for  all,  regardless  of  race,  color,  creed  or  condition, 
and  I  still  hold  the  conviction  expressed  then  that 
ignorant  parenthood  is  the  greatest  "Tn'enace"  which 
shadows  all  the  nations  of  flie  earfK  today.  I  do  not 
mean  ignorance  of  Greek,  Latin,  higher  mathematics, 
literature  or  any  of  the  many  attractive  forms  in 
which  learning  appeals  to  us,  but  ignorance  of  those 
things  which  vitally  concern  the  child's  well-being. 
A  chud's  A  young  merchant,  intent  on  business,  while  rush- 

a"man'^s^  ^"*^  ing  across  the  city  on  his  wheel,  met  with  a  collision. 
The  result  was  numerous  bruises,  sprains  and  disloca- 
tions, which  laid  him  aside  from  active  duties  for  a 
few  days.  The  mental  currents  which  had  been  rush- 
ing out  along  lines  of  business  activity  were  suddenly 
checked,  and  boiled  and  seethed  in  irritation  and  re- 
bellion. "It  would  not  have  been  so  hard,"  he  said, 
"if  I  could  have  been  let  down  easily ;  but  this  sudden 
stoppage  from  a  point  of  intense  activity  to  a  state 
of  enforced    quietness   is    almost   unbearable."    One 


SYMPATHETIC    PARENTHOOD  161 

evening  while  lying  upon  his  sofa,  he  noticed  that  his 
little  boy,  a  bright  little  fellow  of  four  years,  was  re- 
maining up  after  his  usual  bedtime,  and,  calling  the 
nurse,  he  commanded  her  to  take  the  child  to  bed. 
The  little  fellow  resisted  with  kicks  and  screams,  was 
scolded  and  slapped  by  his  father  into  sullen  ac- 
quiescence and  carried  off  rebelliously  to  bed.  ' '  I  de- 
clare,"  said  the  father,  "that  child  is  getting  to  be 
incorrigible.  I  shall  certainly  have  to  take  him  se- 
verely in  hand." 

This  remark  was  addressed  to  a  friend,  a  woman 
of  experience,  who,  sitting  in  the  room,  had  been  a 
witness  to  the  proceedings.  The  comment  of  the  father 
opened  the  way  for  the  expression  of  thoughts  which 
were  welling  in  her  mind.  ' '  Did  you  notice  what  the 
child  was  doing  when  you  ordered  him  to  bed?"  she 
said.  "Why,  no;  not  pa^ticularl3^  He  was  playing, 
I  believe. "  "  He  was  very  busy, ' '  said  the  friend. 
i"He  had  a  grocery  store  in  one  corner  of  the  room, 
ia  telephone  in  another  and  a  magnificent  train  of 
cars  with  a  coal  scuttle  engine.  He  was  taking  orders 
from  the  telephone,  doing  up  packages  in  the  grocery 
store  and  delivering  them  by  train.  He  had  just  very 
courteously  assured  Mrs.  Brown  that  she  should 
shortly  have  a  pound  of  rice  pudding  and  a  bushel  of 
baked  potatoes ;  had  done  up  a  pumpkin  pie  for  Mrs. 
Smith,  when  he  was  rudely  disturbed  injijs  business 
by  Sarah  and  carried  off  to  bed!  He  resented,  and 
probably  if  he  could  have  put  his  thoughts  into  words 
would  have  said  just  what  you  did  a  short  time  ago — 
/that  if  he  could  JiayeJieen  let  down  easy  it  would  not 
'have  been  so  hard.  But  to  be  dropped  suddenly 
right  in  the  midst  of  business  was  intolerable.  Now, 
he  knows  that  tomorrow  the  grocery  store  will  have 
been  demolished,  the  telephone  will  have  disappeared, 


162      SYMPATHETIC  PARENTHOOD 

the  train  will  have  been  wrecked,  and  if  he  goes  into 
business  again  he  will  have  to  begin  at  the  founda- 
tion. You  think  your  experience  is  hard  enough ;  but 
you  know  there  are  others  at  your  place  of  business 
who  are  looking  after  things  as  well  as  they  can.  How 
would  you  feel  if  you  knew  that  your  store  was  de- 
molished and  had  to  be  built  up  again  from  the 
foundation?"  "Oh!  well,"  said  the  father,  ''but  that 
is  business.  The  boy  was  only  playing. "  "  The  boy 's 
occupation  to  him  was  business,  just  as  much  as  yours 
is  to  you;  his  mental  activities  were  just  as  intense; 
the  sudden  checking  of  his  currents  of  thought  were 
just  as  hard  to  bear,  and  his  kicks  and  screams  were 
not  more  unreasonable  in  him  than  have  been  your  ex- 
clamations and  sufferings  during  the  time  that  you 
have  been  ignominiously  consigned  to  bed.  You  have 
been  worrying  over  plans  that  were  suddenly  confused 
because  of  your  accident ;  he  goes  to  bed  feeling  that 
Mrs.  Brown  will  be  disappointed  because  she  didn't 
get  her  rice  pudding,  and  it  was  just  as  hard  for  him 
to  bear  this  as  it  was  for  you  to  bear  your  experience. ' ' 
"Well,  what  would  you  have  me  do?"  said  the  father. 
"Would  you  let  the  child  sit  up  all  night  because  he 
is  interested  in  his  play?"  "No,  but  you  might  have 
let  him  down  easy.  Suppose  you  had  given  him  fif- 
teen minutes  in  which  to  rearrange  his  thoughts.  Sup- 
pose you  had  called  him  up  and  said:  'Well,  Mr. 
Grocer,  I  would  like  to  give  you  some  orders,  but  I 
see  that  it  is  about  time  for  your  store  to  close,  and 
I  shall  have  to  wait  until  tomorrow.'  No  doubt  the 
little  grocer  would  have  been  willing  to  have  filled 
your  orders  at  once ;  but  you  could  have  said :  '  Oh, 
no.  Shops  must  close  on  time,  so  that  the  clerk  can 
go  home.  There  will  be  plenty  of  time  tomorrow.  I 
see  you  still  have  some  business  to  deliver,  and  your 
engineer  is  getting  very  anxious  to  reach  the  end  of 


SYMPATHETIC    PARENTHOOD  163 

his  run.  In  about  fifteen  minutes  the  engine  must 
go  into  the  roundhouse  and  the  engineer  must  go 
home  and  go  to  bed,  so  as  to  be  ready  for  work  to- 
morrow. ' 

"Do  you  not  see  that  this  would  have  turned  the 
thoughts  of  the  child  into  just  the  line  that  you 
wanted  him  to  go?  He  would  have  been  glad  to  close 
up  his  shop,  because  that  is  the  way  men  do ;  and 
as  the  little  engineer  at  the  end  of  a  run  he  would 
have  been  very  glad  to  go  to  bed  and  rest.  Instead 
of  a  rebellious  child  sobbing  himself  sulkily  to  sleep 
with  an  indestructible  feeling  of  injustice  rankling  in 
his  heart,  as  a  happy  little  engineer  he  would  have 
gone  willingly  to  bed,  to  think  with  loving  kindness 
of  that  father  who  had  sympathized  with  him  and 
helped  him  to  close  his  day's  labors  satisfactorily." 
"I  see,"  said  the  father,  "and  I  am  ashamed  of  my- 
self. If  I  could  waken  him  I  would  go  to  him  and 
ask  him  to  forgive  me.  Sarah,  bring  Robbie  here." 
"He  is  asleep,"  was  the  reply.  "Never  mind;  bring 
him  anyhow." 

The  girl  lifted  the  sleeping  boy  and  carried  him  to 
his  father's  arms.  The  child's  face  was  flushed  and 
teai:-stained ;  his  little  fists  were  clenched  and  the  long 
drawn,  sobbing  breath  showed  with  what  a  perturbed 
spirit  he  had  entered  into  sleep.  "Poor  little  chap," 
said  the  father,  penitently,  as  he  kissed  the  cheek 
moist  with  weeping,  ' '  can  you  forgive  your  father,  my 
boy  ? ' '  The  child  did  not  waken ;  but  his  hands  gently 
unclosed,  his  whole  body  relaxed,  and,  nestling  his 
head  more  closely  against  his  father's  breast,  he  raised 
one  chubby  hand  and  patted  the  father's  cheek.  It  was 
as  if  the  loving  voice  had  penetrated  through  the  en- 
,  casing  flesh  to  the  child's  spirit,  and  he  had  answered 
'  love  with  love ;  and  they  will  always  answer  love  with 
love. 


XVIII 

GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

JOHN  LOCKE 

(Note  that  this  most  modern  extract  was  written  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century.) 

jUE  care   being  had  to    keep    the    body    in 

strength  and  vigor,  so  that  it  may  be  able  to 

obey   and  execute  the   orders  of  the  mind ; 

the  next  and  principal  business  is,  to  set  the 

mind  right,  that  on  all  occasions  it  may  be  disposed  to 

consent  to  nothing  but  what  maj'  be  suitable  to  the 

f  dignity  and  excellency  of  a  rational  creature. 

If  what  I  have  before  said  be  true,  as  I  do  not 
doubt  but  it  is,  viz. — that  the  difference  to  be  found 
in  the  manners  and  abilities  of  men  is  owing  more  to 
their  education  than  to  anything  else,'  we' have  reason 
to  conclude,  that  great  care  is  to  be  had  of  the  form- 
ing children 's  minds,  and  giving  them  that  seasoning 
early,  which  shall  inHuence  their  lives  always  after; 
for  when  they  do  well  or  ill,  the  praise  and  blame  will 
be  laid  there ;  and  when  anything  is  done  awkwardly, 
the  common  saying  will  pass  upon  them,  that  it  is 
suitable  to  their  breeding. 

As  the  strength  of  the  body  lies  chiefly  in  being 
able  to  endure  hardships,  so  also  does  that  of  the 
mind.  And  the  great  principle  and  foundation  of 
all  virtue  and  worth  is  placed  in  this :  That  a  man 
;:  is  able  to  deny  himself  his  om'u  desires,  cross  his  own 
jl'  inclinations,  and  purely  follow  what  reason  directs 
as  best,  though  the  appetite  lean  the  other  way. 

164 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS    165 

The  great  mistake  I  have  observed  in  p  -ople  's  Jl^i^^^ 
breeding  their  children,  has  been,  that  this  hi'S  not 
been  taken  care  enough  of  in  its  due  season ;  that 
the  mind  has  not  been  made  obedient  to  discii  line, 
and  pliant  to  reason,  when  at  first  it  was  most  tender, 
most  easy  to  be  bowed.  Parents  being  wisely  or- 
dained by  nature  to  love  their  children,  are  very  apt, 
if  reason  watch  not  that  natural  affection  very  warily, 
are  apt,  I  say,  to  let  it  run  into  fondness.  They  love 
their  little  ones  and  it  is  their  duty ;  but  they  often, 
with  them,  cherish  their  faults,  too.  They  must  not 
be  crossed,  forsooth;  they  must  be  permitted  to  have 
their  wills  in  all  things;  and  they  being  in  their 
infancies  not  capable  of  great  vices,  their  parents 
think  they  may  safe  enough  indulge  their  irregulari- 
ties, and  make  themselves  sport  with  that  pretty 
perverseness  which  they  think  well  enough  becomes 
that  innocent  age.  But  to  a  fond  parent,  that  would 
not  have  his  child  corrected  for  a  perverse  trick,  but 
excused  it,  saying  it  was  a  small  matter,  Solon  very 
^;?''well  replied.  Aye  but  custom  is  a  great  one. 

The  fondling  must  be  taught  to  strike  and  call 
names,  must  have  what  he  cries  for,  and  do  what 
he  pleases.  Thus  parents,  by  humoring  and  cockering 
them  when  little,  corrupt  the  principles  ^f  nature  in 
their  children,  and  w^onder  afterwards  to  taste  the 
bitter  waters,  when  they  themselves  have  poisoned 
the  fountain.  For  when  their  children  are  grown  up, 
and  these  ill  habits  with  them ;  when  they  are  now  too 
big  to  be  dandled,  and  their  parents  can  no  longer 
make  use  of  them  as  playthings,  then  they  complain 
that  the  brats  are  untoward  and  perverse ;  then  they 
are  offended  to  see  them  wilful,  and  are  troubled  with 
those  ill  humors  which  they  themselves  infused  and 
fomented  in  them ;  and  then,  perhaps  too  late,  would 


166  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

be  glac  to  get  out  those  weeds  which  their  own  hands 
have  T,lanted,  and  which  now  have  taken  too  deep 
root  o  be  easily  extirpated.  For  he  that  hath  been 
used  to  have  his  will  in  everything,  as  long  as  he 
was  in  coats,  why  should  we  think  it  strange,  that 
he  should  desire  it,  and  contend  for  it  still,  when  he 
is  in  breeches?  Indeed,  as  he  grows  more  towards 
a  man,  age  shows  his  faults  the  more;  so  that  there 
be  few  parents  then  so  blind  as  not  to  see  them,  few 
so  insensible  as  not  to  feel  the  ill  effects  of  their 
own  indulgence.  He  had  the  will  of  his  maid  before 
he  could  speak  or  go ;  he  had  the  mastery  of  his 
parents  ever  since  he  could  prattle;  and  why,  now 
he  is  grown  up,  is  stronger  and  wiser  than  he  was 
then,  why  now  of  a  sudden  must  he  be  restrained 
and  curbed?  "Why  must  he  at  seven,  fourteen,  or 
twenty  years  old,  lose  the  privilege  which  the  parents' 
indulgence  'till  then  so  largely  allowed  him?  Try 
it  in  a  dog  or  a  horse  or  any  other  creature,  and  see 
whether  the  ill  and  resty  tricks  they  have  learned 
when  young  are  easily  to  be  mended  when  they  are 
knit;  and  yet  none  of  those  creatures  are  half  so 
wilful  and  proud,  or  half  so  desirous  to  be  masters 
of  themselves  and  others,  as  man. 

We  are  generally  wise  enough  to  begin  with  them 
when  they  are  very  young,  and  discipline  betimes 
those  other  creatures  we  would  make  useful  and  good 
for  somewhat.  They  are  only  our  own  offspring, 
that  we  neglect  in  this  point ;  and  having  made  them 
ill  children,  we  foolishly  expect  they  should  be  good 
men.  For  if  the  child  must  have  grapes  or  sugar 
plums  when  he  has  a  mind  to  them,  rather  than 
make  the  poor  baby  cry  or  be  out  of  humor,  why, 
when  he  is  grown  up,  must  he  not  be  satisfied  too, 
if  his  desires  carry  him  to  wine  or  women?     They 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS    167 

are  objects  as  suitable  to    the    longing    of    one    of 
more  years,  as  what  he  cried  for  when  little  was 
to  the  inclinations  of  a  child.     The  having  desires 
accommodated   to   the   apprehensions   and   relish   of 
^  those  several  ages   is  not  the  fault ;  but  the  not  hav- 
|ing  them  subject  to  the  rules  and  restraints  of  rea- 
^  son:  The  difference  lies  not  in  having  or  not  having 
appetities,  but  in  the  power  to  govern,  and  deny  our- 
selves in  them.     He  that  is  not  used  to  submit  his 
will  to  the  reason  of  others  when  he  is  young  will 
scare  hearken  to  submit  to  his  own  reason  when  he 
is  of  an  age  to  make  use  of  it.     And  what  kind  of 
a  man  such  a  one  is  like  to  prove,  is  easy  to  fore- 
see. 

These  are  oversights  usually  committed  by  those 
who  seem  to  take  the  greatest  care  of  their  chil- 
dren's education.  But  if  we  look  into  the  common 
management  of  children,  we  shall  have  reason  to 
wonder,  in  the  great  dissoluteness  of  manners  which 
the  world  complains  of,  that  there  are  any  footsteps 
at  all  left  of  virtue.  '  I  desire  to  know  what  vice  can 
be  named,  which  parents,  and  those  about  children, 
do  not  season  them  with,  and  drop  into  them  the 
seeds  of  as  soon  as  they  are  capable  to  receive  them? 
I  do  not  mean  by  the  examples  they  give  and  the 
patterns  they  set  before  them,  which  is  encourage- 
ment; but  that  which  I  would  take  notice  of  here  is, 
the  downright  teaching  them  vice,  and  actually  put- 
ting them  out  of  the  way  of  virtue.  Before  they  go, 
they  principle  them  with  violence,  revenge,  and 
cruelty.  Give  me  a  blow,  that  I  may  beat  him,  is  a 
•lesson  which  most  children  every  day  hear;  and  it 
is  thought  nothing,  because  their  hands  have  not 
strength  to  do  any  mischief.  But  I  ask,  does  not  this 
corrupt  their  mind  ?    Is  not  this  the  way  of  force  and 


168  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 


Pride  In 
clothes 


*s 


izcesses  in 
ating  and 
ir  inking 


violence,  that  they  are  set  in  ?  And  if  they  have  been 
taught  when  little,  to  strike  and  hurt  others  by  proxy, 
and  encouraged  to  rejoice  in  the  harm  they  have 
brought  upon  them,  and  see  them  suffer,  are  they  not 
prepared  to  do  it  when  they  are  strong  enough  to  be 
felt  themselves,  and  can  strike  to  some  purpose? 

The  coverings  of  our  bodies  which  are  for  modesty, 
warmth  and  defense,  are  by  the  folly  or  vice  of 
parents,  recommended  to  their  children  for  other 
uses.  They  are  made  matters  of  vanity  and  emula- 
tion. A  child  is  set  alonging  after  a  new  suit,  for 
the  finery  of  it;  and  when  the  little  girl  is  tricked 
up  in  her  new  gown  and  commode,  how  can  her 
mother  do  less  than  teach  her  to  admire  herself,  by 
calling  her  her  little  queen  and  her  princess?  Thus 
the  little  ones  are  taught  to  be  proud  of  their  clothes 
before  they  can  put  them  on,  and  why  should  they 
not  continue  to  value  themselves  for  their  outside 
fashionableness  of  the  tailor  or  tirewoman's  making, 
when  their  parents  have  so  early  instructed  them  to 
do  so? 

Lying  and  equivocations,  and  excuses  little  dif- 
ferent from  lying,  are  put  into  the  mouths  of  young 
people,  and  commended  in  apprentices  and  children, 
whilst  they  are  for  their  master's  or  parent's  ad- 
vantage. And  can  it  be  thought,  that  he  that  finds 
the  straining  of  truth  dispensed  with,  and  encouraged, 
whilst  it  is  for  his  godly  master's  turn,  will  not 
make  use  of  that  privilege  for  himself,  when  it  may 
be  for  his  own  profit? 

Those  of  the  meaner  sort  are  hindered,  by  the 
straitness  of  their  fortunes,  from  encouraging  in- 
temperance in  their  children  by  the  temptation  of 
their  diet,  or  invitations  to  eat  or  drink  more  than 
enough ;  but  their  own  ill  examples,  whenever  plenty 


GENERAL  INFORIMATION  FOR  PARENTS  169 

conies  in  their  way,  show  that  it  is  not  the  dislike 
of  drunkenness  or  gluttony,  that  keeps  them  from 
excess,  but  want  of  materials.  But  if  we  look  into 
the  houses  of  those  who  are  a  little  warmer  in  their 
fortunes,  their  eating  and  drinking  are  made  so 
much  the  great  business  and  happiness  of  life,  that 
children  are  thought  neglected,  if  they  have  not  their 
share  of  it.  Sauces  and  ragouts,  and  food  disguised 
by  all  the  arts  of  cookery,  must  tempt  their  palates, 
when  their  bellies  are  full ;  and  then,  for  fear  the 
stomach  should  be  overcharged,  a  pretense  is  found 
for  another  glass  of  wine  to  help  disgestion,  though 
it  only  serve  to  increase  the  surfeit. 

Is  my  young  master  a  little  out  of  order,  the  first 
question  is,  what  will  my  dear  eat?  What  shall  I 
get  for  thee?  Eating  and  drinking  are  instantly 
pressed ;  and  everybody 's  invention  is  set  on  work  to 
find  out  something  luscious  and  delicate  enough  to 
prevail  over  that  want  of  appetite,  which  nature  has 
wisely  ordered  in  the  beginning  of  distempers,  as 
defense  against  their  increase ;  that  being  freed  from 
the  ordinary  labor  of  digesting  any  new  load  in  the 
stomach,  she  may  be  at  leisure  to  correct  and  master 
the  peccant  humors. 

And  where  children  are  so  happy  in  the  care  of 
their  parents,  as  by  their  prudence  to  be  kept  from 
the  excess  of  their  tables,  to  the  sobriety  of  a  plain 
and  simple  diet,  there,  too,  they  are  scarce  to  be  pre- 
served from  the  contagion  that  poisons  the  mind; 
though,  by  a  discreet  management  whilst  they  are 
under  tuition,  their  healths,  perhaps,  may  be  pretty 
well  secure,  yet  their  desires  must  needs  yield  to  the 
lessons  which  everywhere  will  be  read  to  them  upon 
this  part  of  epicurism.  The  commendation  that  eat- 
ing well  as  everywhere,  cannot  fail  to  be  a  success- 


170    GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

ful  incentive  to  natural  appetites,  and  bring  them 
quickly  to  the  liking  and  expense  of  a  fashionable 
table.  This  shall  have  from  everyone,  even  the  re- 
provers of  vice,  the  title  of  living  well.  And  what 
shall  sullen  reason  dare  to  say  against  the  public 
testimony  ?  Or  can  he  hope  to  be  heard,  if  it  should 
call  that  luxury,  which  is  so  much  owned  and  uni- 
versally practiced  by  those  of  the  best  quality? 

This  is  now  so  grown  a  vice,  and  has  so  great 
supports,  that  I  know  not  whether  it  do  not  put 
in  for  the  name  of  virtue;  and  whether  it  will  not 
be  thought  folly,  or  want  of  knowledge  of  the  world, 
to  open  one's  mouth  against  it?  And  truly  I  should 
suspect,  that  what  I  have  here  said  of  it,  might  be 
censured  as  a  little  satire  out  of  my  way,  did  I  not 
mention  it  with  this  view,  that  it  might  awaken  the 
care  and  watchfulness  of  parents  in  the  education  of 
their  children,  when  they  see  how  they  are  beset 
on  every  side,  not  only  with  temptations,  but  in- 
structors to  vice,  and  that,  perhaps,  in  those  they 
thought  places  of  security. 

I  shall  not  dwell  any  longer  on  this  subject,  much 
less  run  over  all  the  particulars  that  would  show 
what  pains  are  used  to  corrupt  children,  and  instill 
principles  of  vice  into  them :  but  I  desire  parents 
soberly  to  consider,  what  irregularity  or  vice  there 
is  which  children  are  not  visibly  taught,  and  whether 
it  be  not  their  duty  and  wisdom  to  provide  them 
other  instructions. 
No  reward  i^  seems  plain  to  me,  that  the  principle  of  all 

virtue  and  excellency  lies  in  a  power  of  denying  our- 
.  spIvpr  tVip  satisfaction  of  our  own  desires,  where  rea- 
son does  not  authorize  them.  This  power  is  to  be 
got  and  improved  by  custom,  made  easy  and  familiar 
by  an  early  practice.    If  therefore  I  might  be  heard, 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS    171 

I  would  advise,  that,  contrary  to  the  ordinary  way, 
children  should  be  used  to  submit  their  desires,  and 
go  without  their  longings,  even  from  their  very 
I  cradles.  The  first  thing  they  should  learn  to  know, 
should  be,  that  they  were  not  to  have  anything  be- 
'  cause  it  pleased  them,  but  because  it  was  thought  fit 
for  them.  If  things  suitable  to  their  wants  were 
supplied  to  them,  so  that  they  were  never  suffered 
to  have  what  they  once  cried  for,  they  would  learn 
to  be  content  without  it,  would  never,  with  bawling 
and  peevishness,  contend  for  mastery,  nor  be  half  so 
uneasy  to  themselves  and  others  as  they  are,  because 
from  the  first  beginning  they  are  not  thus  handled. 
If  they  were  never  suffered  to  obtain  their  desire  by 
the  impatience  they  express  for  it,  they  would  no 
more  cry  for  another  thing,  than  they  do  for  the 
moon. 

This  being  laid  down  in  general,  as  the  course 
that  ought  to  be  taken,  'tis  fit  we  now  come  to 
consider  the  parts  of  the  discipline  to  be  used,  a  little 
more  particularly.  I  have  spoken  so  much  of  carry- 
ing a  strict  hand  over  children,  that  perhaps  I  shall 
be  suspected  of  not  considering  enough,  what  is  due 
to  their  tender  age  and  constitution^But  that  Opinion 
will  vanish,  when  you  have  heard  me  a  little  farther : 
for  I  am  very  apt  to  think,  that  great  severity  of 
^  punishment  does  but  very  little  good,  nay,  great  harm 
^  in  education;  and  I  believe  it  will  be  found  that, 
coeteris  paribus,  those  children  who  have  been  most 
chastised,  seldom  make  the  best  men.  All  that  I  have 
hitherto  contended  for,  is,  thnt._wbfltpnpver  rigor  is 
eeessary,  it  is  more  to  be  used  the  younger  children 
^are;  and  having  by  a  due  application  wrought  its 
effect,  it  is  to  be  relaxed,  and  changed  into  a  milder 
sort  of  government. 


172    GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

/A  compliance  and  suppleness  of  their  wills,  being 
by  a  steady  hand  introduced  by  parents,  before  chil- 
y  dren  have  memories  to  retain  the  beginnings  of  it, 
/  will  seem  natural  to  them,  and  work  afterwards  in 
them  as  if  it  were  so,   preventing  all  occasions  of 
struggling  or  repining.     The  only  care  is,  that  it  be 
/begun  early,  and  ''^^PT^^V  Irftp^  /"^  ^^^^  awe  and  re- 
spect be  grown  familiar,  and  there  appears  not  the 
least  reluctancy  in  the  submission,   and  ready  obe- 
dience of  their  mind.  When  this  reverence  is  thus 
once   established,    (which  it  must  be  early,   or  else 
/  it  will  cost  pains  and  blows  to  recover  it,  and  the 
more  the  longer  it  is  deferred),  'tis  by  it,  still  mixed 
with  as  much  indulgence  as  they  make  not  an  ill  use 
of,  and  not  by  beating,  chiding,  or  other  servile  pun- 
ishments, they  are  for  the  future  to  be  governed  as 
they  grow  up  to  more  understanding. 

That  this  is  so,  will  be  easily  allowed,  when  it  is 
but  considered,  what  is  to  be  aimed  at  in  an  ingen- 
uous education ;  and  upon  what  it  terms. 

He  that  has  not  a  mastery  over  his  inclinations, 
he  that  knows  not  how  to  resist  the  importunity  of 
.     present  pleasure  or  pain,  for  the  sake  of  what  reason 
'  I   tells  him  is  fit  to  be  done,  wants  the  true  principle 
'    of  virtue  and  industry,  and  is  in  danger  never  to  be 
good  for  anything.     This  temper,  therefore,  so  con- 
trary to  unguided  nature,  is  to  be  got  betimes;  and 
this  habit,  as  the  true  foundation  of  future  ability 
and  happiness,  is  to  be  wrought  into  the  mind  as 
early  as  may  be,  even  from  the  first  dawnings  of 
knowledge  or  apprehension  in  children,  and  so  to  be 
confirmed  in  them,  by  all  the  care  and  ways  imagin- 
able, by  those  who  have  the  oversight  of  their  educa- 
tion. 

On  the  other  side,  if  the  mind  be  curbed  and 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS    173 

(humbled  too  much  in  children;  if  their  spirits  be 
abased  and  broken  much,  by  too  strict  a  hand  over 
ithem,  they  lose  all  the  vigor  and  industry,  and  are 
in  a  worse  state  than  the  former.  For  extravagant 
young  fellows,  that  have  liveliness  and  spirit,  come 
sometimes  to  be  set  right,  and  so  make  able  and  great 
men;  but  dejected  minds,  timorous  and  tame,  and 
low  spirits,  are  hardly  ever  to  be  raised,  and  very 
seldom  attain  to  anything.  To  avoid  the  danger  that 
is  on  either  hand,  is  the  great  art;  and  he  that  has 
found  a  way  how  to  keep  up  a  child's  spirit  easy, 
active,  and  free,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  to  restrain 
him  from  many  things  he  has  a  mind  to,  and  to  draw 
him  to  things  that  are  uneasy  to  him;  he  I  say,  that 
knows  how  to  reconcile  the  seeming  contradictions, 
has,  in  my  opinion,  got  the  true  secret  of  education. 

The  usual  lazy  and  short  way  by  chastisement  and  pu^s^hment 
the  rod,  is  the  most  unfit  of  any  to  be  used  in  educa- 
tion, because  it  tends  to  both  these  mischiefs ;  which, 
as  we  have  shown,  are  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis, 
which,  on  the  one  hand  or  the  other,  ruin  all  that 
miscarry. 

This  kind  of  punishment  contributes  not  at  all  to 
the  mastery  of  our  natural  propensity  to  indulge 
corporal  and  present  pleasure,  and  to  avoid  pain  at 
any  rate,  but  rather  encourages  it,  and  thereby 
strengthens  that  in  us,  which  is  the  root  from  whence 
spring  all  vicious  actions,  and  the  irregularities  of 
life.  For  what  other  motive,  but  of  sensual  pleasure 
and  pain,  does  a  child  act  by,  who  drudges  at  his 
book  against  his  inclination,  or  abstains  from  eating 
unwholesome  fruit,  that  he  takes  pleasure  in,  only 
out  of  fear  of  whipping?  He  in  this  only  prefers 
the  greater  corporal  pleasure,  or  avoids  the  greater 
corporal  sin.     And  what  is  it,  to  govern  his  actions, 

Vol.    1 — 12 


174  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

and  direct  his  conduct  by  such  motives  as  these? 
What  is  it,  I  say,  but  to  cherish  that  principle  in 
him,  which  it  is  our  business  to  root  out  and  destroy  ? 
And  therefore  I  cannot  think  any  correction  useful 
to  a  child,  where  the  shame  of  suffering  for  having 
done  amiss,  does  not  work  more  upon  him  than  the 
pain. 

This  sort  of  correction  naturally  breeds  an  aver- 
sion to  that  which  it  is  the  tutor's  business  to  create 
a  liking  to.  How  obvious  is  it  to  observe,  that  chil- 
dren come  to  hate  things  which  were  at  first  ac- 
ceptable to  them,  when  they  find  themselves  whipped, 
and  chid,  and  teased  about  them?  And  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  in  them,  when  grown  men  would 
not  be  able  to  be  reconciled  to  anything  by  such 
ways.  Who  is  there  that  would  not  be  disgusted  with 
any  innocent  recreation,  in  itself  indifferent  to  him, 
if  he  should  with  blows  or  ill  language  be  haled  to 
it,  when  he  had  no  mind?  Or  be  constantly  so  treated, 
for  some  circumstances  in  his  application  to  it  ?  This 
is  natural  to  be  so.  Oft'ensive  circumstances  or- 
dinarily infect  innocent  things  which  they  are  joined 
with ;  and  the  very  sight  of  a  cup  wherein  any  one 
uses  to  take  nauseous  physic  turns  his  stomach,  so 
that  nothing  will  relish  well  out  of  it,  though  the 
cup  be  never  so  clean  and  well  shaped,  and  of  the 
richest  materials. 

Such  a  sort  of  slavish  discipline  makes  a  slavish 
temper.  The  child  submits,  and  dissembles  obedience, 
whilst  the  fear  of  the  rod  hangs  over  him;  but  when 
that  is  removed,  and  by  being  out  of  sight,  he  can 
promise  himself  immunity,  he  gives  the  greater  scope 
to  his  natural  inclination ;  which  by  this  way  is  not 
at  all  altered,  but,  on  the  contrary,  heightened  and 
increased  in  him ;  and  after  such  restraint,  breaks  out 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS  175 

usually  with,  the  more  violence;  or,  if  severity- 
carried  to  the  highest  pitch  does  prevail,  and 
works  a  cure  upon  the  present  unruly  dis- 
temper, it  often  brings  in  the  room  of  it  a  worse 
and  more  dangerous  disease,  by  breaking  the  mind; 
and  then,  in  the  place  of  a  disorderly  young  fellow, 
you  have  a  low  spirited  moped  creature,  who,  however 
with  his  unnatural  sobriety  he  may  please  silly  people, 
who  commend  tame,  unactive  children,  because  they 
make  no  noise,  nor  give  them  any  trouble;  yet  at 
last,  will  probably  prove  as  uncomfortable  a  thing 
to  his  friends,  as  he  will  be  all  his  life  an  useless 
thing  to  himself  and  others. 

Beating  them,  and  all  other  sorts  of  slavish  and 
corporal  punishments,  are  not  the  discipline  fit  to  be 
used  in  the  education  of  those  we  would  have  wise, 
good,  and  ingenuous  men ;  and  therefore  very  rare  to 
be  applied,  and  that  only  in  great  occasions,  and 
cases  of  extremity.  On  the  other  side,  to  flatter  chil- 
dren by  rewards  of  things  that  are  pleasant  to  them, 
is  as  careful  to  be  avoided.  He  that  will  give  to  his 
sou  apples  or  sugar  plums,  or  what  else  of  this 
kind  he  is  most  delighted  with,  to  make  him  learn 
his  book,  does  but  authorize  his  love  of  pleasure, 
and  cocker  up  that  dangerous  propensity,  which  he 
ought  by  all  means  to  subdue  and  stifle  in  him.  You 
can  never  hope  to  teach  him  to  master  it,  whilst  you 
compound  for  the  check  you  gave  his  inclination  in 
one  place,  by  the  satisfaction  you  propose  to  it  in 
another.  To  make  a  good,  a  wise,  and  a  virtuous 
man,  'tis  fit  that  he  should  learn  to  cross  his  appe- 
tite and  deny  his  inclination  to  riches,  finery,  or 
pleasing  his  palate,  etc.,  whenever  his  reason  advises 
the  contrary,  and  his  duty  requires.  But  when  you 
draw  him  to  do  anything  that  is  fit  by  the  offer  of 


176  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

money,  or  reward  the  pains  of  learning  his  book  by 
the  pleasure  of  a  luscious  morsel;  when  you  promise 
him  a  lace  cravat  or  a  fine  new  suit,  upon  per- 
formance of  some  of  his  little  task;  what  do  you  by 
proposing  these  as  rewards,  but  allow  them  to  be  the 
good  things  he  should  aim  at,  and  thereby  encourage 
his  longing  for  them,  and  accustom  him  to  place  his 
happiness  in  them;  thus  people,  to  prevail  with  chil- 
dren to  be  industrious  about  their  grammar,  danc- 
ing, or  some  other  such  matter,  of  no  great  moment 
to  the  happiness  or  usefulness  of  their  lives,  by  mis- 
applied rewards  and  punishments,  sacrifice  their  vir- 
tue, invert  tlie  order  of  their  education,  and  teach 
them  luxury,  pride  or  covetousness,  etc.  For  in 
this  way,  flattering  those  wrong  inclinations  which 
they  should  restrain  and  suppress,  they  lay  the^ 
foundations  of  those  future  vices,  which  cannot  be 
avoided  but  by  curbing  our  desires  and  accustoming 
them  early  to  submit  to  reason. 

I  say  not  this,  that  I  would  have  children  kept 
from  the  conveniences  or  pleasures  of  life,  that  are 
not  injurious  to  their  health  or  virtue.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  would  have  their  lives  made  as  pleasant 
and  as  agreeable  to  them  as  may  be,  in  a  plentiful 
enjoyment  of  whatsoever  might  innocently  delight 
them;  provided  it  be  with  this  caution,  that  they 
have  these  enjoyments,  only  as  the  consequences  of 
the  state  of  esteem  and  acceptation  they  are  in  with 
their  parents  and  governors ;  but  they  should  never  be 
offered  or  bestowed  on  them,  as  the  rewards  of  this  or 
that  particular  performance,  that  they  show  an  aver- 
sion to  or  to  which  they  would  not  have  applied 
themselves  without  that  temptation. 
Bewardi  and  But  if  you  take  away  the  rod  on  one  hand,  and 

punishments     thesc  little  encouragcmcnts  which    they    are    taJken 


GENERAL  INEORMATION  FOR  PARENTS     177 

with,   on  the  other,  how  then    (will  you  say)    shall 
I  children  be  governed?     Remove  hope  and  fear,  and 
1  there  is  an  end  of  all  discipline.     I  grant  that  good 
j  and  evil,  reward  and  punishment,  are  the  only  mo- 
I  tives  to  a  rational  creature :  these  are  the  spur  and 
reins   whereby   all   mankind   are   set   on   work,    and 
guided,  and  therefore  they  are  to  be  made  use  of  to 
children,  too.     For  I  advise  their  parents  and  gov- 
ernors  always   to   carry   this   in    their   minds,    that 
children  are  to  be  treated  as  rational  creatures. 

Rewards,  I  grant,  and  punishments  must  be  pro- 
posed to  children,  if  we  intend  to  work  upon  them. 
The  mistake  I  imagine  is,  that  those  that  are  gen- 
erally made  use  of,  are  ill  chosen.  The  pains  and 
I  I  pleasures  of  the  body  are,  I  think,  of  ill  consequence, 
j  I  when  made  the  rewards  and  punishments  whereby 
'  men  would  prevail  on  their  children;  for  as  I  said 
before,  they  serve  but  to  increase  and  strengthen 
those  inclinations,  which  it  is  our  business  to 
subdue  and  master.  "What  principle  of  virtue  do  you 
lay  in  a  child,  if  you  will  redeem  his  desires  of  one 
pleasure,  by  the  proposal  of  another?  This  is  but  to 
enlarge  his  appetite,  and  instruct  it  to  wander.  If  a 
child  cries  for  an  unwholesome  and  dangerous  fruit, 
you  purchase  his  quiet  by  giving  him  a  less  hurtful 
sweetmeat.  This,  perhaps,  may  preserve  his  health, 
but  spoils  his  mind,  and  sets  that  farther  out  of 
order.  For  here  you  only  change  the  object,  but 
flatter  still  his  appetite,  and  allow  that  must  be  sat- 
isfied, wherein,  as  I  have  showed,  lies  the  root  of  the 
mischief;  and  till  you  bring  him  to  be  able  to  bear 
a  denial  of  that  satisfaction,  the  child  may  at  present 
be  quiet  and  orderly,  but  the  disease  is  not  cured. 
I  By  this  way  of  proceeding,  you  foment  and  cherish 
in  him  that  which  is  the  spring  from  whence  all  the 


V 


178  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

evil  flows,  which,  will  be  sure  on  the  next  occasion 
to  break  out  again  with  more  violence,  give  him 
stronger  longings,  and  you  more  trouble. 

The  rewards  and  punishments  then,  whereby  we 
should  keep  children  in  order,  are  quite  of  another 
kind,  and  of  that  force,  that  when  we  can  get  them 
once  to  work,  the  business,  I  think,  is  done,  and  the 
difficulty  is  over.     Esteem  and  disgrace  are,    of    all 
/  /  others,    the   most  powerful  incentives  to   the   mind, 
/  /  when  once  it  is  brought  to  relish  them.     If  you  can 
once  get  into  children  a  love  of  credit,  and  an  ap- 
prehension of  shame  and  disgrace,  you  have  put  into 
them  the  true  principle,  which  will  constantly  work 
'  and  incline  them  to  the  right.    But  it  will  be  asked, 
how  shall  this  be  done? 

I  confess  it  does  not  at  first  appearance  want 
some  difficulty ;  but  yet  I  think  it  worth  our  while  to 
seek  the  ways  (and  practice  them  when  found)  to 
attain  this,  which  I  look  on  as  the  great  secret  of  edu- 
cation. 
?r»iBe  and  First,  children   (earlier  perhaps,  than  we  think) 

are  very  sensible  of  praise  and  commendation.  They 
find  a  pleasure  in  being  esteemed  and  valued,  es- 
pecially by  their  parents  and  those  whom  they  de- 
pend on.  If  therefore  the  father  caress  and  commend 
them  when  they  be  well,  show  a  cold  and  neglectful 
countenance  to  them  upon  doing  ill,  and  this  accom- 
panied by  a  like  carriage  of  the  mother  and  all  others 
that  are  about  them,  it  will,  in  a  little  time,  make 
them  sensible  of  the  difference ;  and  this,  if  constantly 
observed,  I  doubt  not  but  will  of  itself  work  more 
than  threats  or  blows,  which  lose  their  force  when 
once  grown  common,  and  are  of  no  use  when  shame 
does  not  attend  them ;  and  therefore  are  to  be  for- 
borne, and  never  to  be  used,  but  in  the  case  herein- 
after mentioned,  when  it  is  brought  to  extremity. 


GENERAL  INFORI^IATION  FOR  PARENTS  179 

But  secondly,  to  make  the  sense  of  esteem  or  dis- 
grace sink  the  deeper,  and  be  of  the  more  weight, 
other  agreeable  or  disagreeable  things  should  con- 
stantly accompany  these  different  states;  not  as  par- 
ticular rewards  and  punishments  of  this  or  that  par- 
ticular action,  but  as  necessarily  belonging  to,  and 
constantly  attending  one  who,  by  his  carriage,  has 
brought  himself  into  a  state  of  disgrace  or  commenda- 
tion. By  which  way  of  treating  them,  children  may 
as  much  as  possible  be  brought  to  conceive,  that  those 
that  are  commended,  and  in  esteem  for  doing  well, 
.will  necessarily  be  beloved  and  cherished  by  every- 
body, and  have  all  other  good  things  as  a  conse- 
quence of  it;  and  on  the  other  side,  when  anyone  by 
miscarriage  falls  into  disesteem,  and  cares  not  to 
preserve  his  credit,  he  will  unavoidably  fall  under 
]  neglect  and  _coptempt;  and  in  that  state,  the  want 
'  of  whatever  might  satisfy  or  delight  him  will  fol- 
low. In  this  way  the  objects  of  their  desires  are 
made  assisting  to  virtue,  when  a  settled  experience 
from  the  beginning  teaches  children  that  the  things 
they  delight  in,  belong  to,  and  are  to  be  enjoyed  by 
those  only  wtio  are  in  a  state  of  reputation.  If  by 
these  means  you  can  come  once  to  shame  them  out 
of  their  faults,  (for  besides  that,  I  would  willingly 
have  no  punishment)  and  make  them  in  love  with 
the  pleasure  of  being  well  thought  of,  you  may  turn 
them  as  you  please,  and  they  will  be  in  love  with 
all  the  ways  of  virtue. 
(  The  great  difficulty  here  is,  I  imagine,  from  the 
I  folly  and  perverseness  of  servants,  who  are  hardly 
to  be  hindered  from  crossing  herein  the  design  of 
the  father  and  mother.  Children  discountenanced 
I  by  their  parents  for  any  fault,  find  usually  a  refuge 
I  and  relief  in  the  caresses  of  these  foolish  flatterers, 


180  GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

who  thereby  undo  whatever  the  parents  endeavor  to 
establish.  When  the  father  or  mother  looks  sowre  on 
the  child,  everybody  else  should  put  on  the  same  cold- 
.  ness  to  him,  and  nobody  give  him  countenance,  till 
'  forgiveness  is  asked,  and  a  reformation  of  his  fault  has 
set  him  right  again,  and  restored  him  to  his  former 
credit.  If  this  were  constantly  observed,  I  guess 
there  would  be  little  need  of  blows  or  chiding;  their 
own  ease  and  satisfaction  would  quickly  teach  chil- 
dren to  court  commendation,  and  avoid  doing  that 
which  they  found  everybody  condemned  and  they 
were  sure  to  suffer  for,  without  being  chid  or  beaten. 
This  would  teach  them  modesty  and  shame ;  and  they 
would  quickly  come  to  have  a  natural  abhorrence 
for  that  which  they  found  made  them  slighted  and 
neglected  by  everybody.  But  how  this  inconvenience 
from  servants  is  to  be  remedied,  I  must  leave  to 
parents'  care  and  consideration.  Only  I  think  it  of 
great  importance ;  and  that  they  are  very  happy  who 
can  get  discreet  people  about  their  children. 
/  Frequent  beating  or  chiding  is  therefore  carefully 
to  be  avoided:  because  this  sort  of  correction  never 
/  produces  any  good,  farther  than  it  serves  to  raise 
shame  and  abhorrence  of  the  miscarriage  that  brought 
it  on  them.  And  if  the  greatest  part  of  the  trouble 
be  not  the  sense  that  they  have  done  amiss,  and 
the  apprehension  that  they  have  drawn  on  themselves 
the  just  displeasure  of  their  friends,  the  pain  of 
whipping  will  work  but  an  imperfect  cure.  It  only 
(  patches  up  for  the  present,  and  skins  it  over,  but 
'/reaches  not  to  the  bottom  of  the  sore;  ingenuous 
,shame,  and  the  apprehensions  of  displeasure,  are  the 
)nly  true  restraint.  These  *alone  ought  to  hold  the 
reins,  and  keep  the  child  in  order.  But  corporal 
punishments  must  necessarily  lose   that   effect,   and 


GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS  181 

wear  out  the  sense  of  shame,  where  they  frequently 
return.  Shame  in  children  has  the  same  place  that 
modesty  has  in  women,  which  cannot  be  kept  and  often 
transgressed  against.  And  as  to  the  apprehension  of 
displeasure  in  the  parents,  that  will  come  to  be  very 
insignificant,  if  the  marks  of  that  displeasure  quickly 
cease,  and  a  few  blows  fully  expiate.  Parents  should 
well  consider  what  faults  in  their  children  are 
weighty  enough  to  deserve  the  declaration  of  their 
anger:  but  when  their  pleasure  is  once  declared  to 
a  degree  that  carries  any  punishment  with  it,  they 
ought  not  presently  to  lay  by  the  severity  of  their 
brows,  but  to  restore  their  children  to  their  former 
grace  with  some  difficulty,  and  delay  a  full  recon- 
ciliation till  their  conformity  and  more  than  ordinary 
merit,  make  good  their  amendment.  If  this  not  be 
so  ordered,  punishment  will,  by  familiarity,  become 
a  mere  thing  of  course,  and  lose  all  its  influence; 
offending,  being  chastised,  and  then  forgiven  will  be 
thought  as  natural  and  necessary,  as  noon,  night  and 
morning  following  one  another. 

Concerning  reputation,  I  shall  only  remark  this 
one  thing  more  of  it,  that  though  it  be  not  the  true 
principle  and  measure  of  virtue,  (for  that  is  the 
knowledge  of  a  man's  duty,  and  the  satisfaction  it 
is  to  obey  his  Maker,  in  following  the  dictates  of 
that  light  God  has  given  him,  with  the  hopes  of  ac- 
ceptation and  reward),  yet  it  is  that  which  comes 
nearest  to  it:  and  being  the  testimony  and  applause 
that  other  people's  reason,  as  it  were  by  a  com- 
mon consent,  gives  to  virtuous  and  well  ordered  ac- 
tions, it  is  the  proper  guide  and  encouragement  of 
children,  till  they  grow  able  to  judge  for  themselves, 
and  to  find  what  is  right  by  their  own  reason. 


182  GENERAL  INFORIVIATION  FOR  PARENTS 


'imes    for 
ebuke   and 
lommendation 


'onsideration 
nd  respect 
)r  children 


; 


/ 


This  consideration  may  direct  parents  how  to 
manage  themselves  in  reproving  and  commending 
their  children.  The  rebukes  and  chiding,  which  their 
faults  will  sometimes  make  hardly  to  be  avoided, 
should  not  only  be  in  sober,  grave,  and  unpassionate 
words,  but  also  alone  and  in  private:  but  the  com- 
mendations children  deserve,  they  should  receive  be- 
fore others.  This  doubles  the  reward,  by  spreading 
their  praise ;  but  the  backwardness  parents  show  in 
divulging  their  faults,  will  make  them  set  a  greater 
value  on  their  credit  themselves,  and  teach  them  to 
be  the  more  careful  to  preserve  the  good  opinion  of 
others,  whilst  they  think  they  have  it :  but  when  being 
exposed  to  shame,  by  publishing  their  miscarriages, 
they  give  it  up  for  lost,  that  check  upon  them  is 
taken  off,  and  they  will  be  the  less  careful  to  pre- 
serve others'  good  thought  of  them,  the  more  they 
suspect  that  their  reputation  with  them  is  already 
blemished. 

Having  under  consideration  how  great  the  in- 
fluence of  company  is,  and  how  prone  we  are  all,  es- 
pecially children,  to  imitation ;  I  must  here  take 
the  liberty  to  mind  parents  of  this  one  thing,  viz., 
that  he  that  will  have  his  son  have  a  respect  for  him 
and  his  orders,  must  himself  have  a  great  re"^erence 
for  his  son.  Maxima  dchefur  pueris  reverentia.  You 
must  do  nothing  before  him,  which  you  would  not 
have  him  imitate.  If  anything  escape  you,  which 
you  would  have  pass  for  a  fault  in  him,  he  will  be 
sure  to  shelter  himself  under  your  example,  and 
shelter  himself  so  as  that  it  will  not  be  easy  to  come 
at  him,  to  correct  it  in  him  the  right  way.  If  you 
punish  him  for  what  he  sees  you  practice  yourself,  he 
will  not  think  that  severity  to  proceed  from  kindness 
in  you,  careful  to  amend  a  fault  in  him ;  but  will  be 


GENERAL  INFORI^IATION  FOR  PARENTS   183 

apt  to  interpret  it  the  peevishness  and  arbitrary 
imperiousness  of  a  father,  who,  without  any  ground 
for  it,  would  deny  his  son  the  liberty  and  pleasures 
he  takes  himself.  Or  if  you  assume  to  yourself  the 
liberty  you  have  taken,  as  a  privilege  belonging  to 
riper  years,  to  which  a  child  must  not  aspire,  you 
do  but  add  new  force  to  your  example,  and  recom- 
mend the  action  the  more  powerfully  to  him.  For 
you  must  always  remember,  that  children  affect  to  be 
men  earlier  than  is  thought ;  and  they  love  breeches, 
not  for  their  cut  or  ease,  but  because  the  having 
them  is  a  mark  or  step  towards  manhood.  What  I 
say  of  the  father's  carriage  before  his  children,  must 
extend  itself  to  all  those  who  have  any  authority  over 
them,  or  for  whom  he  would  have  them  have  any 
respect. 

But  of  all  the  ways  whereby  children  are  to  be 
instructed  and  their  manners  formed,  the  plainest, 
easiest  and  most  efficacious,  is  to  set  before  their 
eyes  the  examples  of  those  things  you  would  have 
them  do  or  avoid;  which,  when  they  are  pointed  out 
to  them,  in  the  practice  of  persons  within  their  knowl- 
edge, with  some  reflections  on  their  beauty  and  un- 
becomingness,  are  of  more  force  to  draw  or  deter 
their  imitation,  than  any  discourses  which  can  be 
made  to  them.  Virtues  and  vices  can  by  no  words 
be  so  plainly  set  before  their  understandings  as  the 
actions  of  other  men  will  show  them,  when  you  direct 
their  observations,  and  bid  them  view  this  or  that 
good  or  bad  quality  in  their  practice.  And  the  beauty 
or  uncomeliness  of  many  things,  in  good  and  ill 
breeding,  will  be  better  learnt,  and  make  deeper  im- 
pressions on  them,  in  the  examples  of  others,  than 
from  any  rules  or  instructions  can  be  given  about 
them. 


184      GENERAL  INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS 

This  is  a  method  to  be  used,  not  only  whilst  they 
are  young,  but  to  be  continued  even  as  long  as  they 
shall  be  under  another's  tuition  or  conduct;  nay,  I 
know  not  whether  it  be  not  the  best  way  to  be  used 
by  a  father,  as  long  as  he  shall  think  fit,  on  any 
occasion  to  reform  anything  he  wishes  mended  in  his 
son;  nothing  sinking  so  gently,  and  so  deep,  into 
men's  minds,  as  example.  And  what  ill  they  either 
overlook  or  indulge  in  themselves,  they  cannot  but 
dislike  and  be  ashamed  of,  when  it  is  set  before 
them  in  another. 


XIX 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 

JOHN  LOCKE,  1693 

HOUGH  I  have  mentioned  the  severity  of 
the  father's  brow,  and  the  awe  settled  there- 
by in  the  mind  of  children  when  young,  as 
one  main  instrument  whereby  their  educa- 
tion is  to  be  managed;  yet  I  am  far  from  being  of 
an  opinion  that  it  should  be  continued  all  along  to 
them,  whilst  they  are  under  the  discipline  and  gov- 
ernment of  pupilage ;  I  think  it  should  be  relaxed, 
as  fast  as  their  age,  discretion  and  good  behavior 
will  allow  it;  even  to  that  degree,  that  a  father  will 
do  well,  as  his  son  grows  up,  and  is  capable  of  it,  to 
talk  familiarly  with  him;  nay,  ask  his  advice,  and 
consult  with  him  about  those  things  wherein  he  has 
any  knowledge  or  understanding.  By  this,  the  father 
will  gain  two  things,  both  of  great  moment.  The 
one  is,  that  it  will  put  serious  consideration  into 
his  son's  thoughts,  better  than  any  rules  or  advice 
he  can  give  him.  The  sooner  you  treat  him  as  a 
man,  the  sooner  he  will  begin  to  be  one :  and  if  you 
admit  him  into  serious  discourses  sometimes  with  you, 
you  will  insensibl}^  raise  his  mind  above  the  usual 
amusements  of  youth,  and  those  trifling  occupations 
which  it  is  commonly  wasted  in.  For  it  is  easy  to 
observe,  that  many  young  men  continue  longer  in 
the  thought  and  conversation  of  school  boys  than 
otherwise  they  would,  because  their  parents  keep 
them  at  that  distance,  and  in  that  low  rank,  by  all 
their  carriage  to  them. 

Another  thing  of  greater  consequence,  which  you 
will  obtain  by  such  a  way  of  treating  him,  will  be 

;85 


Advantages 
of  companioo. 
ship  between 
father  and 
son 


Father   should 
advise  as  a 
friend 


186   WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 

his  friendship.  Many  fathers,  though  they  propor- 
tion to  their  sons  liberal  allowances,  according  to 
their  age  and  condition,  yet  they  keep  the  knowledge 
of  their  estates  and  concerns  from  them,  with  as 
much  reservedness  as  if  they  were  guarding  a  secret 
of  state  from  a  spy  or  an  enemy.  This,  if  it  looks  not 
like  jealousy,  yet  it  wants  those  marks  of  kindness  and 
intimacy  which  a  father  should  show  his  son,  and  no 
doubt  often  hinders  or  abates  that  cheerfulness  and 
satisfaction  wherewith  a  son  should  address  himself 
to,  and  rely  upon  his  father.  And  I  cannot  but 
often  wonder  to  see  fathers  who  love  their  sons  very 
well  yet  so  order  the  matter  by  a  constant  stiffness 
and  a  mien  of  authority  and  distance  to  them  all 
their  lives,  as  if  they  were  never  to  enjoy,  or  have 
any  comfort  from  those  they  love  best  in  the  world, 
till  they  had  lost  them  by  being  removed  into  another. 
Nothing  cements  and  establishes  friendship  and  good 
will  so  much  as  confident  communication  of  con- 
cernment and  affairs.  Other  kindnesses,  without  this, 
leave  still  some  doubts :  but  when  your  son  sees  you 
open  your  mind  to  him,  when  he  finds  that  you  in- 
terest him  in  your  affairs,  as  things  you  are  willing 
should  in  their  turn  come  into  his  hands,  he  will  be 
concerned  for  them  as  for  his  owti,  wait  his  season 
with  patience,  and  love  you  in  the  meantime,  who 
keep  him  not  at  the  distance  of  a  stranger.  This  will 
also  make  him  see,  that  the  enjoyment  you  have,  is  not 
without  care;  which  the  more  he  is  sensible  of,  the 
less  will  he  envy  you  the  possession,  and  the  more 
think  himself  happy  under  the  management  of  so 
favorable  a  friend  and  so  careful  a  father.  There 
is  scarce  any  young  man  of  so  little  thought,  or  so 
void  of  sense,  that  would  not  be  glad  of  a  sure  friend, 
that  he  might  have  recourse  to  and  freely  consult  on 
occasion.     The  reservedness  and  distance  that  fathers 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER   187 

keep,  often  deprive  their  sons  of  that  refuge  which 
would  be  of  more  advantage  to  them  than  a  hundred 
rebukes  and  chidings.  Would  your  son  engage  in 
some  frolic,  or  take  a  vagary,  were  it  not  much 
better  he  should  do  it  with,  than  without  your  knowl- 
edge? For  since  allowances  for  such  things  must  be 
made  to  young  men,  the  more  you  know  of  his  in- 
trigues and  designs,  the  better  will  you  be  able  to 
prevent  great  mischiefs;  and  by  letting  him  see  what 
is  like  to  folly,  take  the  right  way  of  prevailing  with 
him  to  avoid  less  inconveniences.  Would  you  have 
him  open  his  heart  to  you  and  ask  your  advice  "you 
must  begin  to  do  so  with  him  first,  and  by  your 
carriage  beget  that  confidence." 

But  whatever  he  consults  you  about,  unless  it  lead 
to  some  fatal  and  irremediable  mischief,  be  sure  you 
advise  only  as  a  friend  of  more  experience ;  but  with 
your  advice  mingle  nothing  of  command  or  authority, 
no  more  than  you  would  to  your  equal  or  a  stranger. 
That  would  be  to  drive  him  forever  from  any  farther 
demanding,  or  receiving  advantage  from  your  coun- 
sel. You  must  consider  that  he  is  a  young  man, 
and  has  pleasures  and  fancies  which  you  are  past. 
|You  must  not  expect  his  inclination  should  be  just 
las  vours,  not  that  at  twentv  he  should  have  the  same 
(thoughts  you  have  at  fifty.  All  that  you  can  wish, 
is  that  since  youth  must  have  some  liberty,  some 
/^outleaps,  they  might  be  with  the  ingenuity  of  a  son, 
/and  under  the  eye  of  a  father,  and  then  no  very  great 
harm  can  come  of  it.  The  way  to  obtain  this,  as  I 
said  before,  is  (according  as  you  find  him  capable) 
to  talk  with  him  about  your  affairs,  propose  matters 
to  him  familiarly,  and  ask  his  advice;  and  when  he 
ever  lights  on  the  right,  follow  it  as  his;  and  if  it 
succeed  well,  let  him  hav^  the  commendation.  This 
will  not  at   all  lessen  your  authority,   but  increase 


pnpil 


188    WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 

his  love  and  esteem  of  you.  "Whilst  you  keep  your 
estate,  the  staff  will  still  be  in  your  own  hands; 
and  your  authority  the  surer,  the  more  it  is  strength- 
ened with  confidence  and  kindness.  For  you  have 
not  that  power  you  ought  to  have  over  him,  till  he 
comes  to  he  more  afraid  of  offending  so  good  a 
friend  than  of  losing  some  part  of  his  future  expecta- 
tion, 
disco^fo  of  Familiarity  of  discourse,  if  it  can  become  a  father 

tutor  and  to  his  SOU,  may  much  more  be  condescended  to  by 
a  tutor  to  his  pupil.  All  their  time  together  should 
not  be  spent  in  reading  of  lectures,  and  magisterially 
dictating  to  him  what  he  is  to  observe  and  follow. 
Hearing  him  in  his  turn,  and  using  him  to  reason 
about  what  is  proposed,  will  make  the  rules  go  down 
the  easier  and  sink  the  deeper,  and  will  give  him  a 
liking  to  study  and  instruction :  and  he  will  then  be- 
gin to  value  knowledge,  when  he  sees  that  it  enables 
him  to  discourse,  and  he  finds  the  pleasure  and  credit 
of  bearing  a  part  in  the  conversation  and  of  having 
his  reason  sometimes  approved  and  hearkened  to; 
particularly  in  morality,  prudence,  and  breeding, 
cases  should  be  put  to  him,  and  his  judgment  asked. 
This  opens  the  understanding  better  than  maxims, 
how  well  soever  explained,  and  settles  the  rules  bet- 
ter in  memory  for  practice.  This  way  lets  things  into 
the  mind,  which  stick  there,  and  retain  their  evidence 
with  them ;  whereas  words  at  best  are  faint  repre- 
sentations, being  not  so  much  as  the  true  shadows  of 
things,  and  are  much  sooner  forgotten.  He  will  bet- 
ter comprehend  the  foundations  and  measures  of 
decency  and  justice,  and  have  livelier,  and  more  last- 
ing impressions  of  what  he  ought  to  do,  by  giving  his 
opinion  on  cases  proposed,  and  reasoning  with  his 
tutor  on  fit  instances,  than  by  giving  a  silent,  negli- 
gent,   sleepy   audience   to   his   tutor's   lectures;    and 


m 

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WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER     189 

much  more  than  by  captious  logical  disputes,  or  set 
declamations  of  his  own,  upon  any  question.     This 
one   sets    the   thoughts   upon   wit   and    false    colors, 
and  not  upon  truth ;  the  other  teaches  fallacy,  wran- 
gling,  and   opiniatry;    and  they   are   both   of  them 
things  that  spoil  the  judgment,  and  put  a  man  out 
of  the  way  of  right  and  fair  reasoning;  and  there- 
fore carefully  to  be  avoided  by  one  who  would  im- 
prove himself,  and  be  acceptable  to  others. 
I        "When  by  making  your  son  sensible  that  he  de- 
pends on  you,  and  is  in  your  power,  you  have  estab- 
lished your  authority ;  and  by  being  inflexibly  severe 
in  your  carriage  to  him  when  obstinately  persisting 
in  any  ill-natured  trick  which  you  have  forbidden,  es- 
pecially lying,  you  have  imprinted  on  his  mind  that 
I  awe  which  is  necessary ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  when 
I  (by  permitting  him  the  full  liberty  due  to  his  age, 
and  laying  no  restraint  in  your  presence  to  those 
childish  actions  and  gaiety  of  carriage,  which,  whilst 
he  is  very  young,  is  as  necessary  to  him  as  meat 
or  sleep)  you  have  reconciled  him  to  your  company, 
and  made  him  sensible  of  your  care  and  love  of  him, 
by  indulgence  and    tenderness,    especially    caressing 
him  on  all  occasions  wherein  he  does  anything  well, 
and  being  kind  to  him  after  a  thousand  fashions,  suit- 
able to  his  age,  which  nature  teaches  parents  better 
than  I  can :  when,  I  say,  by  these  ways  of  tenderness 
and  affection,   which  parents  never  want  for  their 
children,  you  have  also  planted  in  him  a  particular 
affection  for  you;  he  is  then  in  the  state  you  could 
desire,  and  you  have  formed  in  his  mind  that  true 
reverence  which  is  always  afterwards  carefully  to  be 
continued,  and  maintained  in  both  parts  of  it,  love 
and  fear,  as  the  great  principles  whereby  you  will 
always  have  hold  upon  him,  to  turn  his  mind  to  the 
ways  of  virtue  and  honor. 

Vol.   1 — 13 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 


Matnal 
obligations  of 
fathers  ajii 
mothers 


Character- 
istlCB  of  a 
good  father 


SARA.H  K.  JOHNSON,   1911 

T  is  because  I  so  firmly  believe  that  if  we 
can  hope  to  develop  the  highest  possibilities 
of  the   child,   we  must    have    the    full    co- 
operation of  both  parents,  that'l  amTasked  to 
write  this  paper.'"" 

"We  hear  addresses  upon  addresses ;  we  weary  of 
reading  books  and  papers  on  the  duty  of  the  mother 
to  her  child,  but  while  we  fully  believe  that  "it  is  the 
I  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  that  rules  the  world, ' '  we 
know  that  the  father's  hand  can,  and  often  does,  rock 
^  gently  and  firmly  as  that  of  the  mother. 

We  must  not  (unconsciously  though  it  may  be) 
overlook  the  fact  that  husbands  and  wives  must  mu- 
tually bear  each  others'  burdens  as  well  as  pleas- 
ures; that  side  by  side  they  must  stand,  strong  in 
their  happy  union  of  love. 

>  Every  woman  must  respect  the  true,  manly  man, 
made  in  the  image  of  his  Creator,  endowed  with  all 
the  faculties  that  make  for'TruTKT'fidelity,  honesty 
and  integrity,  crowned  withal,  with  that  patient 
gentleness  that  never  fails  to  conquer. 

Can  any  mother  ever  so  wise,  judicious,  loving 
and  affectionate,  take  the  place  of  such  a  father ! 
Should  she  be  expected  to  do  more  than  a  mother's 
loving  duty? 

It  may  be  said  the  ideal  is  too  high.  Can  our 
ideal  be  too  high,  or  can  we  feel  our  responsibility 
too  great  in  attempting  to  mould  the  tender,  trust- 
ful, helpless  little  child  that  we  welcome  as  the  great- 
est blessing  to  the  home?J 

190 


/ 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER    191 

This  little  blossom  of  faith  must  learn  by  the 
father's  life  and  example,  to  respect  and  love  his 
father,  as  he  must  his  mother  by  the  example  of  her 
Hfe. 

Let  us  then  endeavor  to  throw  out  those  strong 
tendrils,  during  the  formative  period,  to  which  the 
child  may  cling  after  the  time  of  authority  is  passed. 

That  father  who  finds  it  is  restful  pleasure  to 
spend  at  least  a  half  hour  each  day  with  his  child 
will  reap  the  reward  of  seeing  him  grow  more  and 
more  companionable  as  he  grows  in  years. 

Do  we  fully  realize  that  in  entering  into  the  holy 
bond  of  matrimony,  the  happiness  of  that  future 
home  may  depend  upon  the  self-control  of  the  father 
equally  with  that  of  the  mother,  and  thai  we  must 
strive  to  educate  each  other  as  fellow  Christians,  if 
we  wish  to  develop  the  characters  necessary  to  pre- 
pare us  for  the  sacred  duty  of  parenthood? 

We  know  full  well  that  the  too  strenuous  business  strenuous 
>4ife  of  today  demands  the  earnest  attention  of  our  obstacle 
men,  and  that  they  frequently  return  after  a  weary 
day  too  much  spent  to  enjoy  the  blessed  privilege 
of  the  home.  Their  loved  ones,  those  nearest  and 
dearest  to  their  hearts,  must  only  get  the  fag  end  of 
the  day,  and  in  the  privacy  of  the  home  it  is  easy 
to  expect  sympathetic  counsel  of  the  wife  and  mother ; 
but  should  not  this  faithful  companion  who  has  pa- 
tiently met  the  perplexing  duties  of  her  station  re- 
ceive her  share  of  sympathy?  W^hat  can  be  more 
restful  and  reassuring  to  a  wife  and  mother  than  to 
realize  that  her  children  are  sure  of  the  joyful  frolic 
with  their  father  upon  his  return,  which  is  always 
so  delightfully  refreshing  to  an  overtaxed  business 
man. 

That  father  who  manages  to  find  time  to  know  his 


192    WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 

child,  goes  to  his  business  each  day  just  that  much 
better  fortified  to  meet  the  perplexing  questions  that 
await  him  in  the  office.  We  know  that  it  is  possible 
for  splendid  business  men  to  enjoy  the  first  and  last 
hour  of  the  day  in  close  companionship  with  their 
little  ones,  at  the  expense  of  carpets  and  furniture, 
or  it  may  be  the  grass,  and  gardens ;  this  play  to  him 
is  sacred. 

To  that  mother  who,  when  her  firstborn  lay  on 
her  lap,  offered  up  prayers  for  strength  to  so  mould 
and  guide  that  baby  boy's  character  that  he  might 
grow  up  to  be  a   blessing  to" some   good  wife,  and 
/a  wise  and  happy  father  to  his    children,    it    is    a 
crowning  blessing  for  her  to  realize  this  son  fulfiU- 
1  ing  the  ardent  desire  of  her  heart  in  making  a  happy 
/  home  for  a  loving  wife,  and  a  wise  and  patient  father 
to  their  happy  little  family,  and  to  know  that  this 
young   father   realizes  the   necessity   of  dealing  pa- 
tiently but  firmly  with  his  boys,  and  if  necessary  will 
take  time  from  the  early  business  hour  to  discipline 
his  child. 

"  *We  cannot  begin  too  early  to  establish  confidence 
,   and  sympathy  between  ourselves  and  our  children; 
they  crave  sympathy  and  we  must  ever  be  on  the 
alert  to  respond  to  these  yearnings  of  the  heart.^ 

^In  order  to  prepare  our  young  men  for  the  duties 
of  husband  and  father  we  must  begin  with  our  boys 
and  educate  them,  just  as  much  as  we  need  to  teach 
our  girls,  if  we  wish  to  better  the  conditions,  and  to 
create  ideal  surroundings  in  the  home^ 

^kVhen  we  graduate  men  and  women  Tmly  equipped 
to  enter  upon  the  sacred  duty  of  matrimony,  we 
shall  not  hear  of  the  fathers  who  have  not  time  to 
know  their  children ;  or  of  the  child  who  asked  his 
mother  on  Monday  morning,  ''where  that  man  was 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER    193 

who  comes  here  on  Sunday,"  or  again,  of  the  father 
who,  upon  losing  his  temper  with  his  disobedient 
little  boy,  hastily  carried  him  upstairs  and  sat  him  on 
a  chair,  none  too  gently,  closing  the  door,  hurried 
down  to  his  interrupted  reading  in  the  library,  quite 
forgetting  his  little  prisoner  until  a  gentle  little  voice 

(called  down,  ' ' Dada,  dada,  well,  have  you  gotten  over 
your  temper  yet,  is  it  safe  for  me  to  come  down  ? ' ' 

What  a  precious  lesson  these  little  ones  teach  us.  J^^d'^"'' 
We  surely  learn  more  than  we  teach  as  we  turn  over 
from  day  to  day  and  study  the  pages  of  their  unfold- 
ing lives.  In  this  child  study  the  mother  needs, 
perhaps,  more  than  anything  else,  the  sympathetic 
co-operation  of  her  husband,  and  until  this  need  is 
fully  met,  mothers  must  be  emphatically  burden 
bearers  in  the  home.  Mother  love  must  walk  hand  in 
hand  with  anxiety  and  care. 

Mrs.  Felton  has  truly  said  ''the  companionship 
between  mother  love  and  apprehension  begins  at  the 
cradle  and  lingers  at  the  grave  of  the  offspring,  al- 
ways solicitous  and  anxious." 

It  is,  then,  because  of  this  (it  may  be  over 
anxiety)  that  a  mother  needs  the  strong,  firm,  noble 
influence,  which  the  father  acquires  from  his  ex- 
perience with  the  outside  world.  Thus  together  they 
must  live  with  their  children,  not  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  child,  but  perhaps  more  for  their  owti  sakes, 
because  parents  cannot  live  with  the  child  without 
becoming  like  a  little  child.  Therefore  we  may  live 
nearer  to  heaven,  and  the  relationship  thus  estab- 
lished between  parent  and  child  is  apt  to  become 
in  time  the  relationship  between  the  soul  and  its 
iGod. 

Can  we  not  then  pause  in  our  onward  rush  in 
the  great  hustle  and  bustle  of  the  hard  cut  business 


194    WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  FATHER 

\  and  social  life  into  which,  we  have  allowed  ourselves 
i  to   drift,    and   try   to   reorganize   the  home   life,   by 
I   seeking  in   the   quiet   hour   at  the   family   altar  to 
know  that  ''I  am  God!" 

Together  in  His  name  may  we  be  able  to  study 
our  children,  and  in  those  delightful  walks  in  nature's 
garden,  among  the  flowers  and  trees,  while  we  listen 
to  the  sweet  melody  of  the  birds,  we  may  be  able  to 
lead  our  little  ones  from  nature  to  nature's  God. 
Bread-  I  have  tried  in  this  short  paper  to  emphasize  the 

winning  not  r-    x-  x- 


the  whole      x  ffact  that  the  father  has  a  higher  and  holier  mission 
'in  the  family  than  that  of  merely  a  breadwinner,  or 


duty 


that  of  the  financier,  but  that  he  should  know  of  the 
joy,  the  sweet  relaxation  from  business,  which  he 
must  derive  from  this  close  intimacy  with  his  chil- 
dren, besides  realizing  he  is  maintaining  his  rightful 
place  in  their  affection  as  they  grow  from  infancy  to 
manhood  and  w^omanhood. 

Then  let  those  parents  give  thanks  morning  and 
evening  whose  creative  work  of  parenthood  has  been 
accomplished  in  an  atmosphere  of  sustaining  sym- 
pathy. 


XX 

WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER 

MARY  H.  WEEKS 

HERE  is  no  caste  in  motherhood.  "Wealth,  Motherhood 
power  or  color  do  not  do  away  with  the  old  bond 
time  decree  ' '  In  sorrow  thou  shalt  bring  forth 
children."  It  does  not  substitute  any  dif- 
fering plans  for  the  rich  or  poor,  white  or  black. 
There  is  but  one  and  that  formed  by  the  Creator  from 
the  beginning.  The  name  of  "mother"  represents 
a  common  suffering,  a  common  bond  of  sympathy,  a 
common  love,  between  all  who  bear  the  name. 

Yet  this  act  of  maternity  w^hich  makes  all  women 
kin  is  the  very  least  part  of  true  motherhood.  Some 
one  has  said  "It  takes  three  generations  to  make  a 
gentleman,  but  the  world  has  yet  to  learn  how  long 
it  takes  to  make  a  true  mother."  Comparatively 
few  mothers  realize  that  the  mere  animal  love  with 
which  heavenly  kindness  floods  the  mother's  heart 
at  that  first  cry,  is  not  sufficiently  intelligent  to  guide 
the  most  inexperienced  woman  in  training  a  soul  for 
its  life  work.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  animal  love 
which  is  roused  at  birth  is  given  for  the  physical 
protection  of  the  child.  Some  mothers  never  get  be- 
yond it,  and  they  fight  for  their  children,  right  or 
wrong,  failing  to  realize  that  they  are  interfering 
with  the  best  interests  of  the  hoys  and  girls.  This 
sort  of  mother  is  the  pest  of  the  neighborhood  and 
of  the  school,  and  so  are  her  children,  because  they 
have  not  learned  the  lesson  that — to  live  the  best  life 

195 


196       WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER 

and  get  the  most  out  of  it,  you  must  consider  the 

rights  of  others  equally  with  your  own. 

True  mother  fpj^g  ^j.^g  mother  love  comes  from  the  long  care 

of  the   helpless   body   entrusted   to   her  hands,    the 

long  study  of  the  little  mind  growing  from  day  to 

day  under  her  eyes,  the  trials  which  its  peculiarities 

offer  to  her  own  ingenuity;  and  teaches  her  that  in 

this  world  of  give  and  take,  his  share  of  the  taking 

of  hard  knocks  is  a  part  of  his  character  building. 

The  child  comes  to  the  mother  more  helpless  than 

(^the  newly  born  of  any  other  creature.     Upon  her 

depends  the  development  of  his  powers  for  good,  and 

/the  dwarfing  of  those  which  tend  toward  evil.     He 

has  a  body  which  she  must  develop  to  its  utmost,  a 

mind  to  be   directed  to  its  best  uses,  and  a  moral 

^)6iature  which  she  must  train  to  mastery  of  self.     It 

IS  generally  agreed  that  the  little  one  learns  more  in 

wthe  first  two  years  than  in  any  five  succeeding  ones. 

Yet  many  people  believe  that  his  mental  development 

begins  on  his  first  school  day,  or  perhaps  at  his  first 

spoken  word.    In  point  of  fact,  the  little  mind  begins 

at  once  to  store  up  mental  impressions  which  knock 

at  the  gates  of  speech  long  before  that  portal  opens. 

In  the  first  few  months  of  life,  the  child  gains  about 

all  its  essential  knowledge  of  the  material  world,  and 

an  appalling  amount  as  to  the  moral  world  around 

♦  him.     As  it  is  in  the  first  years  that  the  mother  has 

»  the  child  with  her  always,  and  upon  her  he  is  almost 

'  entirely  dependent  for  the  conditions  in  which  he 

learns  these  lessons,  it  is  quite  important  to  know 

what  constitutes  the  good  mother  and  to  learn  how 

to  be  one. 

iSeUigent  7        ^^  would  wish  for  this   good  mother  that  she 

mother      r   might  be  highly  educated.    Usually  she  is  not,  but  if 

a  woman  has  not  had  even  a  fair  education,  she  may 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER       197 

still  make  of  herself  an  intelligent  mother,  and  this 
goes  much  farther  than  mere  schooling,  desirable  as 
that  is.  Helps  towards  good  motherhood  are  on  every 
hand,  and  the  mother  who  wishes  for  help  has  only 
to  ask.  Experts  are  writing,  experienced  mothers  are 
talking;  everywhere  are  movements  looking  toward 
the  more  sensible  rearing  of  children.  There  is  no 
excuse  for  not  trying  to  do  our  mothering  in  a  more 

I  rational  w^ay.  The  good  mother  is  the  thinking 
mother,  always  on  the  lookout  for  suggestions  to 
better  her  methods;  learning  from  everything  she 
reads  in  papers  and  books,  and  from  the  schools 
and  the  life  about  her  what  to  do  and  what  not  to  do 
with  her  children. 

Were  one  to  ask  what  one  thing  is  most  necessary      The  patient 
to  the  good  mother,  the  majority  answer  would  prob- 

I  ably  be  ''patience."  And  perhaps  this  is  correct.  Not 
all  sorts  of  patience;  not  patience  with  all  sorts  of 
things,  for  there  is  a  noble  impatience  with  wrong 
doing  which  accomplishes  more  than  the  all-enduring, 
all-suifering  mother  can  ever  bring  about.  But  this 
is  only  for  use  in  crises.  For  every-day  work,  the 
mother  needs  a  large  stock  of  patience  with  the  con- 
stant trials  which  the  inexperience,  foolishness,  and 
general  youthfulness  of  children  offer  to  her  busy 
nerves.  She  needs  to  put  herself  in  their  place  con- 
tinually, to  try  to  understand  their  feelings,  to  re- 
member her  own  childhood,  and  to  realize  that  the 
child  is  not  fully  born  till  adolescence  closes,  and 
that  he  must  not  be  judged  by  the  rules  which  apply 
to  people  fully  grown.  Much  of  the  annoyance  they 
cause  us  is  not  real  badness.  They  are  just  trying 
themselves  and  the  new  powers  they  are  daily  get- 
ting. If  they  do  not  try  them,  how  are  the  powers  to 
grow?    The  good  mother  thinks  this  all  out  and  has  a 


198      WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER 

lot  of  patience  with  the  merely  trying  actions,  while 
she  holds  a  firm  hand  on  the  things  that  are  really 
good  or  bad. 
The  s^w-  The  good  mother  is  the  self-respecting  mother  who 

mother  demands  from  her  children  a  respect  for  her  mother- 

hood and  a  consideration  for  herself.  She  knows  that 
she  represents  authority  in  the  home  just  as  the 
teacher  represents  it  in  the  school,  and  the  officials 
of  the  state  and  union  represent  it  in  those  provinces 
of  life.  If  the  mother  has  not  taught  the  child  to 
respect  her  authority  in  the  home,  he  goes  to  school 
hampered  by  an  exaggerated  idea  of  his  own  im- 
portance, wastes  his  own  and  the  teacher's  time,  and 
goes  out  into  the  world  to  waste  his  citizenship  in 
constant  rebellion  against  the  restrictions  that  com- 
munity life  requires. 

Mrs.  Robt.  Middlebrook  said  at  our  mothers' 
union  that  the  mother  who  could  raise  a  family  of 
children,  all  obedient  to  the  powers  that  be,  deserves 
a  monument,  and  has  done  her  duty  in  life.  I  quite 
agree  "wdth  her.  No  mother  can  be  a  good  one  who 
does  not  understand  the  value,  the  highest  importance 
.to  her  children,  of  training  them  from  birth  to  be 
obedient.  Obedient  to  those  in  charge  of  them  in 
/home,  school,  state  and  nation.  It  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  a  successful  life,  and  no  true  citizenship  can 
exist  without  it.  A  bright  young  fellow,  meant  to 
be  a  power  for  good  in  the  world,  found  himself  on 
the  way  to  the  penitentiary,  and  was  led  to  consider 
what  brought  him  to  such  a  pass.  He  said  bitterly, 
"If  my  mother  had  taught  me  to  be  obedient,  instead 
of  letting  me  have  my  own  way  and  pampering  me 
in  disobedience  to  my  teachers,  I  would  not  now  be  on 
the  way  to  jail."  When  I  tell  this  story  to  mothers, 
I  look  around  to  see  their  expressions.     It  is  always 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER    199 

sorrow  for  the  lad  and  indignation  for  the  mother. 
But  that  is  not  the  thought  I  wish  to  awaken.  "Am  I 
doing  the  same  thing  with  my  boy  and  girl?  Am  I 
forgetting  that  they  are  forming  character  noicf  Am 
I  allowing  them  to  form  habits  of  disobedience  to 
curse  them  and  the  world,  under  the  mistaken  im- 
pulse of  my  selfish  love  ?  Sparing  myself  some  small 
pangs  of  sympathy  now,  and  laying  up  pangs  of  re- 
gret for  the  future?"  These  are  the  things  we 
must  ask  ourselves. 

I  would  like  to  talk  of  the  different  ways  of  se- 
curing obedience,  but  that  is  a  subject  of  itself.    "We 
may,  however,  say  that  no  good  mother  expects  to 
J  hold  the  respect  of  her  family  by  continual  cuffings 
/  and  scoldings.     These  are  only  signs  that  she  is  a 
failure,  and  no  one  knows  this  better  than  the  chil-  ' 

dren.  She  wins  respect  by  making  just  judgments, 
by  not  losing  her  temper,  by  acting  the  truth,  by 
showing  the  child  the  right,  and  if  she  must  use 
punishment,  she  uses  it,  not  frequently,  but  at  the 
right  time,  in  the  right  place,  and  in  the  right  way, 
so  that  the  children  look  upon  her  as  a  just  and  up- 
right judge.  She  must  be  what  she  wishes  her  chil- 
dren to  be. 

'  No  mother  ever  secures  useful  obedience  by  beat-  raaures 
^  ing.  She  may  get  the  child's  body  to  do  what  she 
wants,  because  she  is  bigger  and  stronger,  and  in 
doing  it  she  may  make  his  mind  so  rebellious  that 
he  hates,  and  thinks  of  the  time  when  he  will  be 
too  big  and  strong  to  be  beaten  by  her.  The  p;ond 
/mother  punishes,^  because  the  child  is  bad,  not  be- 
cause she  is  angry,  or  bigger  or  stronger;  and  she 
makes  t|]e  chilH  fppi  ihat  |ia  Vi^gprntfPTi  his  just  de- 
serts. .  She  makes  him  nbprlip^.  hpnansp  it  is  right 
for  him.     She  trains  his  mind  to  be  obedient  to  the 


clean-minded' 
nesB 


200      WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER 

right.     Then  when  he  goes  out  into  the  world,  he  is 
not  like  a  boat  without  a  steering  gear,  because  he  is 
i «  away  from  her  stick.    He  has  a  stick  in  his  mind,  and 
An  can  do  his  o"«ti  guiding. 
honesty^°n"'  "^^^  S^od  mother  sends    her    children    into    the 

world,  not  only  with  habits  of  respect  for  authority, 
and  obedience  to  it,  but  truthful  and  honest,  and  clean 
minded.  Now  truthfulness  and  honesty  cannot  be 
taught  by  precept,  or  by  going  to  church  or  Sunday 
school.  Children  learn  truth,  honesty  and  clean 
mindedness  from  the  conduct  of  the  people  about 
them,  that  is — from  the  home  folks.  If  the  child, 
knowing  the  facts  in  the  case,  hears  us  telling  a  big 
story  for  the  sake  of  its  effect  on  a  visitor,  he  con- 
cludes that  the  truth  is  not  the  best  thing,  as  we 
have  told  him,  and  naturally  tells  us  a  lie  when  next 
he  thinks  it  will  serve.  We  then  punish  him,  when 
we  should  ask  some  one  to  punish  us.  The  child 
is  made  older  than  he  is  to  get  him  into  school,  and 
younger  than  he  is  to  get  him  a  ride  free  on  the  cars, 
and  what  is  gained  by  it?  Bitter  tears  when  he  de- 
ceives us  and  mortification  when  he  deceives  his 
employer  and  loses  his  position. 

The  good  mother  keeps  her  children  clean  minded,, 
by  being  clean  minded  and  clean  tongued  herself,  and 
by  keeping  unclean  talk  from  her  home.  She  builds 
a  clean  soul  in  a  clean  body,  not  by  telling  the  child 
all  the  secrets  of  life,  but  only  the  things  within  its 
understanding,  and  lets  both  boy  and  girl  know  the 
dangers  which  departures  from  clean  conduct  entail 
upon  themselves  and  which  are  visited  upon  the  chil- 
dren to  the  third  and  fourth  generation.  There  are 
many  helps  upon  this  work  which  we  cannot  now  dis- 
cuss. Children  must  be  kept  off  the  streets  and  out 
of  bad  company,  to  start  them  right.     If  we  could 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD  MOTHER    201 

only  have  kindergartens  for  the  children  from  three 
to  six,  enough  to  care  for  all  the  children  whose 
mothers  must  work  away  from  home,  how  many 
more  could  be  started  right! 

The  good  mother  teaches  honesty  as  she  does  Honest 
truthfulness,  by  being  honest  herself.  She  does  not 
lead  the  boy  to  the  gi^ocery,  only  to  see  her  take  a 
cracker  here,  a  grape  there,  an  apple  for  the  child, 
nor  does  she  allow  him  to  do  it,  for  she  knows  that 
not  thus  can  she  teach  him  the  difference  between 
mine  and  thine.  She  makes  him  understand  that  not 
until  the  apple  is  paid  for,  is  it  hers  or  his.  She  sees 
that  the  child  does  not  come  home  from  school  with 
more  in  its  pocket  than  it  took  away,  without  full 
explanation  and  restitution  if  necessary.  She  does  not 
smile  at  his  sharpness  in  getting  something  for  noth- 
ing, but  teaches  him  that  this  does  not  pay  in  the 
end.  If  she  reads  the  daily  papers  she  has  abundant 
examples  to  prove  it.  As  day  by  day,  justice  gets 
nearer  to  the  "higherups,"  we  see  that  it  is  more 
comfortable  to  have  an  honest  living,  than  a  dis- 
honest show  of  wealth. 

The  good  mother  knows  that  she  cannot  teach 
these  things,  unless  she  lives  modestly  and  within  her 
means,  and  makes  her  children  understand  that  it  is 
not  important  to  have  and  to  do  as  others  have  and 
do,  but  that  it  is  important  to  be  independent  of  others 
by  having  what  one  can  afford.  Only  this  gives  peacs 
of  mind. 

When  all  parents  are  good  parents,  all  children 
will  be  respectful  of  authority,  obedient  to  the  right, 
truthful,  clean  minded,  honest,  and  then  there  will 
be  no  bitter  regrets  for  our  wrongdoing  shown  in 
our  children. 


202  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  EDUCATION 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics  . .  Charles  B.  Davenport 
(An  account  of  transmission  of  traits  and  a  summaiy 
of  what  is  knoAvn  of  the  inheritance  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  them  and  the  incorrectness  of  popular  notions 
about  them.) 

Parenthood  and  Race  Culture Charles  W.  Saleeby 

(Covers  the  entire  field  of  Eugenics;  while  extensive, 
it  is  not  too  technical.  Chapters  IX,  X,  XI,  useful 
for  parents.) 

IVIethods  of  Race  Regeneration Charles  "W.  Saleeby 

(A  small  book  with  workable  suggestions  for  parents 
and  reformers.) 

Woman  and  "Womanhood Charles  W.  Saleeby 

(A  book  which  every  one  should  read.  It  covers  the 
questions  simply  from  the  standpoint  of  eugenics 
and  the  good  of  children  and  the  state.) 

The  Art  of  Right  Living Ellen  Richards 

(A  small  book  easily  digested.) 

Womanhood  and  Its  Development Luella  Z.  Rummel 

(One  of  the  sanest  and  most  unobjectionable  books  on 
the  reproductive  system.) 

A  Study  of  Child  Nature Elizabeth  Harrison 

(Covers  method.  Not  an  extensive  guide  but  necessary 
for  every  parent.) 

Children's  Rights Kate  Douglas  Wiggin 

(A  small  book  full  of  suggestion.) 

The  Training  of  Parents Ernest  H.  Abbott 

(Delightful  in  style,  and  full  of  suggestion  on  cliild 
training.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  PARENTHOOD  203 

The  Comixg  Generation William  B.  Forbush 

(A  nsable  pojDular  presentation  of  forces  at  work  for 
the  betterment  of  American  young  people,  with  sug- 
gestions for  effort  in  home,  school,  church  and  state; 
good  book  lists.) 

Boy  Training John  W.  Alexander 

(A  small  book  replete  with  simple  practical  helps  on 
the  family  boy  problem.  Sections  on  adolescent  boy- 
hood and  school,  social  and  church  life  especially 
good.) 

The  Boy  Problem "William  B.  Forbush 

(Religious  work  with  young  boys.  Practical  experience 
with  boys'  clubs.  The  boys'  Judge,  Lindsay  says  he 
has  had  the  most  helpful  suggestions  from  Forbush.) 

Farm  Boys  and  Girls William  McKeever 

(Very  simple  and  practical,  with  special  book  lists. 
Useful  not  only  for  rural  parents  but  for  those  in- 
terested in  rural  improvement.) 

Adolescence G.  Stanley  Hall 

(Exhaustive  and  extensive.    Useful  for  research  work.) 

The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  Jane  Addams 

(For  eveiy  parent  seeking  to  understand  the  youth  of 

his  own  children  and  that  of  other  people's  children. 

No   one   can   realize   adolescent  needs   who   has  not 

imbibed  the  spirit  of  this  small  book.) 

Religious  Education Religious  Education  Society 

(Volume  V,  Nos.  1,  2  and  6,  are  full  of  suggestions 
for  parents,  and  for  workers  for  child  welfare  and 
the  home.) 

CHHiD  Welfare  Magazine 

(Covers  every  phase  of  what  is  being  done  to  secure  an 
enlightened  parenthood.) 


FOUNDING  THE  HOME 


Vol.  1 — 14 


QUOTATIONS 

"The  greatest  social  privilege  woman  can  have  is  to  be 
the  chief  agent  in  the  improvement  of  the  race,  and  through 
it  the  regeneration  of  society  itself.  .  .  .  Being  pos- 
sible mothers,  it  is  necessary,  if  the  race  and  society  are  to 
be  improved,  that  women  shall  acquire  the  highest  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral  education  of  which  they  are  capable, 
and  if  they  require  the  same  qualities  in  their  husbands,  their 
problem  is  solved.''— Holbrook. 

"Whatever  man  has  attained,  whatever  achievements  he 
has  made,  whatever  heights  he  has  reached,  it  has  been  not 
so  much  on  account  of  his  feeling  going  out  to  woman  as 
because  of  his  craving  for  her  feeling  to  come  to  him.  He 
feels  in  his  very  soul  that  she  loves  him,  and  that  for  this 
love  he  must  do  the  highest,  the  noblest,  the  purest— because 
of  that  love  which  she  bestows  on  him  through  her  child,  he 
must  do  his  best  and  truest." —Paidology. 

"His  house  she  enters  there  to  be  a  light 
Shining  within  when  all  without  is  night. 
A  guardian  angel,  o'er  his  life  presiding, 
Doubling  his  joys  and  all  his  cares  dividing." 

"Frederick  was  a  vicious  man  before  I  married  him,  yet 
his  father  never  warned  me.  He  has  told  me  he  kept  silence 
because  he  hoped  marriage  would  be  his  son's  salvation.  My 
own  father,  my  own  beloved  father,  he  didn't  ask  as  many 
questions  about  Frederick  as  he  would  have  asked  about 
buying  a  horse.  It  need  not  have  been,  and  it  drives  me 
wild  to  think  of  it. 

"I  dread  not  to  have  children,  because  without  them  my 
life  is  without  its  whole  fulfillment.  I  lack  work  to  occupy 
my  mind  espandingly,  my  heart  lacks  nourishment,  and  my 
old  age  will  be  cold.  I  dread  not  having  children  because 
I  can  accomplish  so  little  for  the  world  in  any  other  way, 
and  so  much  in  this  way,  because  married  life  is  a  pauper's 
life  without  its  natural  enrichment,  because  without  this 
natural  and  beautiful  outlet  the  purpose  of  life  returns 
upon  itself,  and  whole  regions  of  life  lie  wantonly  barren." — 
Marion  Sprague. 

207 


XXI 

THE   ATMOSPHERE   OF  HOME 

MRS.  DAVID  O.  MEARS 
Vice-President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers 


HE  unit  of  society  is  the  home.  It  is  the 
most  sacred  spot  known  to  the  human  heart. 
Even  the  beauty  of  Eden  was  not  perfected 
until  there  was  a  home  in  it.  It  is  a  place 
of  rest,  joy  and  inspiration.  It  offers  a  sphere  for  the 
employment  of  the  best  talent  of  man  or  woman.  It 
is  the  germ  of  the  state.  Its  functions  are  so  vital 
as  to  call  from  our  chief  executive  the  expression  that 
the  standard  of  a  nation's  greatness  is  set  in  its 
homes.  The  ideal  home  has  in  it  the  wisdom  of  age, 
the  strength  of  mature  life,  the  inspiration  of  youth, 
and  the  beauty  of  childhood. 

^When  two  people  give  their  love  and  their  lives 
to  each  other,  ' '  till  death  them  do  part, ' '  a  new  home 
is  thus  formed,  which  should  be  the  shrine  of  love, 
and  unselfish  devotion,  dedicated  to  all  that  is  noble, 
inspiring  and  pure.    In  the  passing  of  the  years : 

"A  precious  gift  God  gave  when  he  smiled, 
And  sent  into  the  home-nest  a  beautiful  child." 

Love,  deep,  tender,  sacred,  possesses  the  parental 
hearts  at  the  coming  of  the  new  treasure.  An  earnest 
desire  is  awakened  that  in  this  home  a  noble,  useful 
life  may  be  nurtured  and  developed.  Soon  a  con- 
sciousness of  things  about  him  dawns  upon  the  little 
one;  much  earlier  than  we  realize,  it  perceives  an 
indefinable  something  in  its  surroundings.  He  knows 
in  time  whether  the  parents  seek  wisdom  from  above ; 

209 


210  THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  HOME 

whether  the  motive  in  life  is  for  self  or  for  others; 
whether  obedience  is  demanded,  or  whether  by  eoax- 

•  ing  or  teasing  his  own  will  is  finally  obtained ;  whether 
punishment  is  administered  in  love,  and  for  his  truest 
good,  or  whether  given  in  anger,  and  under  the  im- 
pulse of  the  moment;  he  knows  whether  fault-finding 
or  unkind  words  about  neighbors  and  friends  are  al- 

'  lowed;  whether  the  Sabbath  Day  and  the  Lord  of 
the  Sabbath  receive  due  reverence — in  fine,  he  per- 

W  ceives  the  atmosphere — the  spirit  of  the  home.  A 
child  is  sensitive  to  every  influence  surrounding  him, 

'^  and  the  home  atmosphere  determines  his  develop- 
ment and  growth,  as  truly  as  the  degrees  of  moisture 
and  ..temperature^_determine_the  growth  or  lack  of 
growth  in  different  plants.  This  intangible  some- 
thing which  we  call  the  atmosphere  of  the  home,  is 
stiU  so  real  that  its  character  is  evident  at  once,  even 
to  a  stranger.  Upon  some  happy  homes  the  spirit 
of  love  and  peace  rests  to  such  a  degree  that  who- 
ever crosses  the  thresholds  feels  the  warmth  as  from 
the  beaming  of  the  sun's  rays.  In  other  households, 
.the  lack  of  sympathy,  of  mutual  helpfulness  and 
thoughtful  consideration  for  the  rights  and  com- 
forts of  each,  seems  like  a  * '  bitter  biting  of  the  North 
wind's  breath."  One  feels  sure  that  here  the  tender 
plants  of  child  life  will  be  dwarfed,  failing  of  their 
highest  development.  A  mother  may  put  geraniums 
jin  the  sun,  but  frown  on  her  baby. 
\  Every  child  has  a  God-given  right  to  a  happy 
home,  which  shall  furnish  the  best  conditions  for 
normal,  helpful  growth.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
"criminals  come  out  of  homes  that  are,  in  many 
respects,  real  homes,  but  have  in  them  certain  condi- 
tions which  aid  in  releasing  the  evil  that  is  in  the 
child's  nature,   and  in  suffocating  or  starving  the 


THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  HOME  211 

good.  It  is  one  thing  to  teach  positive  virtues  and 
the  avoidance  of  vices;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to 
provide  a  fostering  atmosphere  which  shall  rein- 
force the  teaching."  The  moral  and  religious  atmos- 
phere in  which  the  child  lives,  has  more  to  do  with 
his  training  than  any  direct  precepts.  This  most 
J  important  influence  of  the  young  life  should  be  of  a 
•  character  suited  to  the  development  of  a  great  soul: 
fitted  to  bring  to  its  highest  fruition  the  best  in  the 
child's  nature.  Every  home  has  a  controlling  in- 
fluence, a  center  about  which  everything  revolves, 
and  the  training  depends  upon  what  that  center  is. 
Home  shapes  character  and  decides  destiny.  What 
the  boy  is  in  the  home,  the  man  will  doubtless  be  in 
the  state.  In  the  crises  arising  in  every  life,  the 
momentous  decision  will  depend  upon  the  habits 
formed  under  the  parental  roof-tree.  Sons  and 
daughters  go  forth  to  college  and  business  life,  meet- 
ing many  temptations  from  which  they  have  been 
shielded  in  the  home.  When  temptation  assails,  when 
currents  beat  against  the  eager  life,  then,  if  the  train- 
ing has  been  in  the  direction  of  truth  and  nobility 
and  right  and  "goodness  made  to  seem  the  natural 
way  of  living, ' '  the  youth  will  stand,  anchored  by  the 
thoughts  of  home  and  parental  love. 

In  that  family  life,  exerting  so  great  an  influence 
at  a  critical  time,  there  must  have  been  love,  sym- 
pathy and  confidence.  Our  children  need  more  of 
the  parents'  interest  and  co-operation  in  their  little 
J  plans,  pleasures  and  aims.  We  endeavor  to  surround 
(  them  with  every  physical  comfort  possible,  yet  there 
is  the  need  of  the  heart,  a  craving  for  more  com- 
panionship of  father  or  mother.  It  is  not  what  we  do 
for  our  children  that  makes  them  love  us,  but  it  is 
what  we  do  with  them.     Every  bit  of  co-operation, 


212  THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  HOME 

whether  in  work  or  in  play,  is  a  tie  that  binds.  A 
young  man  once  said  to  his  grandfather,  "You  have 
been  a  very  successful  man,  have  you  not?"  "Yes, 
as  the  world  counts  success,"  was  the  reply,  "but 
my  life  seems  a  failure,  because  I  did  not  give  enough 
of  myself  to  my  children.  Your  Uncle  James,  lack- 
ing this  comradeship  at  a  time  when  he  was  longing 
for  it,  ruined  his  life  and  his  father  has  never  ceased 
to  mourn." 


XXII 
THE  HIGHEST  AMBITION 

DELOS  F.  WILCOX 

OUNG  people,  full  of  the  enthusiasm  of  self- 
culture  and  free  association,  are  sometimes 
led  to  overestimate  their  possibilities  of  self- 
realization  within  the  span  of  their  own  lives, 
and  also  to  overestimate  the  hindrances  to  self- 
realization  which  are  necessarily  attendant  upon  par- 
enthood. He  is  indeed  a  boldly  optimistic  man  who 
can  seriously  believe  himself  capable  of  reaching  the 
/  acme  of  perfection  in  his  own  lifetime.  To  most 
of  those  who  have  a  high  ideal  of  individual  human 
life,  the  possibility  of  prolonging  the  process  of  im- 
provement through  an  indefinite  number  of  genera- 
tions, must  form  a  welcome  and  altogether  needful 
opportunity  of  self-realization.  Self-culture,  if  sought 
too  eagerly  and  too  individually  is  like  the  mirage 
of  the  desert.  The  means  of  self-culture  are  social, 
and  the  experience  of  mankind  as  well  as  the  instinct 
of  the  heart  indicate  that  participation  in  home- 
making  and  the  rearing  of  children  is  one  of  the  most 
potent  means  of  character  building.  *  *  *  One  can 
hardly  conceive  of  any  work  that  would  stir  the  as- 
pirations and  satisfy  the  longings  of  the  high  minded, 
noble  hearted  men  and  women  so  thoroughly  as  the 
culture  of  humanity  in  themselves,  and  the  transmis- 
sion to  the  future  of  their  highest  individuality 
through  reproduction  and  the  training  of  children  to 
take  their  places. 

213 


214  THE  HIGHEST  AliffilTION 

Some  may  fancy  that  they  can  best  transmit  their 
good  qualities  to  society  by  their  writings,  inventions, 
or  other  notable  works  during  their  own  lifetime. 
This  may  be  true  in  a  few  cases  where  individuals  of 
high  genius  are  so  absorbed  in  creative  tasks  that 
they  have  no  time  for  family  life.  But  men  are  more 
important  than  books;  splendid  women  are  more 
important  than  charitable  foundations;  healthy  chil- 

'  dren  are  more  important  than  ingenious  playthings; 
progress  in  individual  self-control  is  more  important 

'  than  forwardness  in  the  conquest  of  nature;  health 
is  more  important  than  luxury.  And  for  these  more 
significant  contributions  to  the  welfare  of  the  future, 
for  these  deepest  impressions  upon  the  character  of 
the  race,  for  these  most  direct  transmissions  of  cul- 
tured individuality,  procreation  and  family  life  are 
by  far  the  most  generally  efficient  means.  Whether 
interpreted  in  terms  of  social  obligation  or  of  in- 
dividual self-fulfillment,  marriage  is  an  opportunity 
and  a  duty  for  those  who  are  fitted  for  it. 


XXIII 

THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  CHILD  TO  BE  WELL 

BORN* 

GEORGE  E.  DAWSON,  Ph.  D. 
Hartford  School  of  Religious  Pedagogy 

|NE  cf  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  phuantiiropi 
present  generation  is  its  scientific  and  phil-  iSe^day  °^ 
anthropic  interest  in  children.  I  use  the 
terms  "scientific"  and  "philanthropic"  re- 
strictively,  for  there  is  another  kind  of  interest, 
namely,  parental  interest,  concerning  which  there  is 
some  reason  for  doubt.  But  as  to  scientific  and 
philanthropic  interest  in  children,  surely  we  who  live 
in  these  days,  are  witnessing  new  things  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  With  the  increasing  number  of  aca- 
demic institutions,  as  normal  schools,  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, that  are  applying  the  human  sciences  to  the 
study  of  children ;  with  the  establishment,  under  both 
scientific  and  benevolent  auspices,  of  numerous 
branches  of  research  into  children's  physical  and 
mental  traits,  health,  amusements,  occupations,  care 
and  training;  and  with  the  enactment  of  laws  for 
the  protection  and  betterment  of  children,  and  the 
inauguration  of  all  kinds  of  activities  for  the  im- 
provement of  children's  conditions  in  the  home,  the 
school,  the  church,  and  industrial  life — there  is  abun- 
dant evidence  that  in  scientific  and  philanthropic 
circles,  the  child  has  become  an  object  of  critical  and 
anxious  concern. 

*Read  before  the  Religious  Education  Association,  1911. 

215 


216  WELL  BORN 

pweiShood  "^^^  y^^'  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  truly  epoch- 

making  movement  in  the  direction  of  a  better  child- 
hood, is  being  promoted  by  a  generation  of  men  and 
women  in  which  there  are  distinct  signs  of  a  decaying 

J  parenthood.  At  a  time  when,  in  the  most  intelligent 
and  prosperous  communities  of  the  United  States, 
men  and  women  are  vying  with  one  another  in  study- 
ing children,  working  with  children,  and  writing  and 
speaking  in  behalf  of  children — the  number  of  men 
and  women,  in  these  same  communities,  who  actually 

'  become  the  parents  of  children    is  apparently  on  the 

•  decrease.  To  begin  with,  such  men  and  women  are 
not  marrying  as  commonly  as  they  did  a  generation 
ago.    It  is  estimated  that  forty  years  ago  the  average 

f  annual  number  of  marriages  per  10,000  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  was  ninety-eight.  Accord- 

.  ing  to  the  census  returns  for  1900,  it  was  ninety.  In 
the  North  Atlantic  states,  which  are  undoubtedly  the 
leaders  in  all  movements  relating  to  children's  wel- 
fare, the  marriage  rates  per  10,000  of  the  population 
•were  eighty-four  in  1890,  and  eighty-two  in  1900. 
But  not  only  do  fewer  men  and  women  marry  in 
this  generation,  those  who  do  marry  are  more  fre- 
quently dissatisfied  with  their  marriage  obligations. 
Each  successive  five  year  period  since  1867  has  wit- 

/nessed  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  of  divorces. 
Thus  we  have  in  1902,  the  following  ratios  of  divorces 
to  marriages  in  the  eight  states  reporting  definite 
statistics:  In  Massachusetts,  1  to  16;  in  Michigan,  1 
to  11 ;  in  Vermont,  1  to  10 ;  in  Ohio,  1  to  8.8 ;  in 
Indiana,  1  to  7.6 ;  and  in  Maine,  1  to  6.  On  an 
average,  therefore,  there  is  in  these  states  one  mar- 
riage in  every  nine  that  is  followed  by  a  divorce,  and 
this  is  believed  to  be  a  fair  representation  for  the 
United  States  as  a  whole. 


WELL  BORN  217 

Nor  are  these  the  only  symptoms  of  a  decreasing 
inclination  towards  parenthood.  More  significant  still 
is  the  fact  that  fewer  children  are  being  born  each 
J    succeeding  decade.     For  a  number  of  decades  the 
birth  rate  has  fallen  off  about  one  per  cent,  each, 
until  in  1900  there  were  only  three-fourths  as  many 
living  children  to  each  1,000  potential  mothers  as  in 
.    1860.     In  a  bulletin  issued    by    the    Massachusetts 
1    bureau  of  statistics  and  labor  in  1905,  the  results  of 
detailed  studies  of  the  birth  rates  in  four  cities  and 
three  towns  in  Massachusetts  were  summarized  so  as 
I  to  show  the  contrast  between  the  present  generation 
and  the  preceding  one.  The  19,478  native  born  women 
included  in  these  studies  were  shown  to  have  borne, 
'  on  an  average,  2.8  children;  whereas  the  mothers  of 
/these  women  bore,  on  an  average,  6.5  children.     As 
to  the  causes  of  this  decrease  in  birth  rate,  Dr.  John 
S.  Billings,  formerly  of  the  United  States  Army  Med- 
ical Museum,  and  now  in  the  New  York  Public  Li- 
brary, has  this  to  say :    "  It  is  probable  that  the  most 
important  factor  in  change  of  birth  rate  is  the  de- 
liberate  and  voluntary  avoidance  or   prevention  of 
^  child  bearing  on  the  part  of  a  steadily  increasing 
lumber  of  married  people." 

Not  susceptible   of   statistical  summary,   but  no 
less  suggestive  to  the  observant  mind,  are  the  ten- 
dencies in  art,  literature,  and  the  drama,  as  well  as 
in  many  of  our  popular  manners  and  customs.    This 
I  is   not   a   generation   that  idealizes   fatherhood   and 
/  motherhood.  Perhaps,   no  generation  ever  did  ideal- 
ize fatherhood,  unless  it  were  the  generations  of  the 
/  Hebrew  Patriarchs.     But  the  idealization  of  mother- 
I  hood  has  been  common  throughout  human  history. 
Such  is  not  the  case  at  the  present  time,   at  least 
in   the  more   cultured   circles  of  American  society. 


218  WELL  BORN 

/  "Woman  as  mother  is  not  impressed  upon  the  imagina- 
tion of  our  young  people.  It  is  a  woman  as  aca- 
demician— excellent  in  scholarship,  taking  degrees, 
traveling  in  Europe  in  pursuit  of  some  specialty,  and 
finally  entering  upon  a  career  of  her  own — that  be- 
comes the  ideal  of  thousands  of  our  brightest  young 

/  women  in  the  colleges  and  universities.  It  is  woman 
in  public  life — as  a  club  woman,  author,  actress,  social 
reformer,  or  political  agitator — that  bulks  up  most 
conspicuously  in  the  popular  imagination.  It  is  the 
detached  woman  whom  one  sees  everywhere,  and  who 
is  influencing  profoundly  the  ideals  of  girls  and  young 

'  women  in  our  day. 
ioiogicja'**"*  -'■    ^^^^   submitted   this  psychological   and   social 

Biedity  paradox  of  a  generation  keenly  interested  in  chil- 

dren from  the  scientific  and  philanthropic  points  of 
view,   and   yet   apathetic   or   decadent  in   its   desire 

^  for  parenthood,  as  a  setting  for  the  following  prop- 
ositions : 

1.  All  the  scientific  and  philanthropic  activities 
at  the  present  time,  in  behalf  of  children,  have  their 
logical  culmination  in  the  creation  of  conditions  such 
as  will  insure  the  propagation  of  a  better  human 

:^stock.  The  farther  one  advances  in  any  scientific 
study  of  children 's  physical  and  mental  traits,  whether 
it  be  as  medical  specialist,  criminologist,  psychiatrist, 
educator  or  moralist,  the  more  does  he  find  his  facts 
and  conclusions  emphasizing  the  necessity  of  a  re- 
generated biological  heredity.  In  the  words  of  Dr. 
S.  Herbert,  in  his  recent  book,  "The  First  Principles 

^of  Heredity":  "Procreation  being  the  foundation  of 
all  life,  the  science  of  heredity  forms  the  basis  of  the 
science  ^f  J.ife,  and  its  principles  must  therefore  be 
considered  the  fundamentals  of  all  social  science." 
The  same  is  true  of  the  philanthropic  worker  with 


WELL  BORN  219 

children  who  looks  beneath  the  surface  of  his  tasks 
I  and  tries  to  build  the  foundations  of  a  better  racial 
'  life.  What  do  all  our  efforts  at  education,  reforma- 
tion, and  social  improvement  in  children  amount  to, 
if  they  do  not  affect  the  quality  of  human  parent- 
'hood  so  that  better  types  of  children  may  be  born 
into  the  world  ?  Says  Karl  Pearson :  "  No  degenerate 
and  feeble  stock  will  ever  be  converted  into  healthy 
and  sound  stock  by  the  accumulated  effects  of  educa- 
tion, good  laws,  and  sanitary  surroundings.  Such 
means  may  render  the  individual  members  of  the 
stock  passable  if  not  strong  members  of  society ;  but 
the  same  process  will  have  to  be  gone  through  again 
and  again  with  their  offspring,  and  this  in  ever  wid- 
ening circles,  if  the  stock,  owing  to  the  conditions  in 
which  society  has  placed  it,  is  able  to  increase  in 
numbers. ' ' 

2.     The  apparent  atrophy  and  decay  of  the  desire     Eecognition 

„  -      ^,    .  .  .  T  ,       of  children's 

tor  parenthood  m  our  generation  can  be  arrested  and     rights 
corrected  only  as  men  and  women  are  brought  to  a 
more  adequate  recognition  of  children's  right  to  be 
well  born,  and  their  own  inescapable  obligations  in 
this  matter.     The  interest  in  children  as  objects  of 
scientific  and  philanthropic  concern,  must  be  trans- 
I  muted  into  an  interest  in  becoming  the  parents  of 
/  children.    It  is  indeed  probable  that  the  psychological 
paradox  of  a  generation  devoted  to  children  as  stu- 
dents and  benefactors,  while  becoming  less  devoted 
/to  them  as  parents,  is  no  paradox  at  all  in  the  light 
of  a  more  searching  analysis.  It  is  a  law  of  the  human 
mind  that  instincts  and  feelings  thwarted  and  de- 
feated in  one  direction  are  sure  to  assert  themselves 
in  another.    Much  of  the  scientific  and  philanthropic 
>  interest  in  children  may  thus  be  a  result  of  defeated 
,    parenthood.     "While  such  an  interest  is  not  an  ab- 


f: 


220  WELL  BORN 

normal  manifestation,  nevertheless  its  proper  object 
will  not  be  realized,  nor  the  normal  balance  in  the 
^procreative  functions  of  civilization  be  restored,  until 
it  brings  back  to  men  and  women  the  desire  for  off- 
spring. 
?ar^nthoSd  °'  What,  then,  are  the  conditions  that  will  make  the 

child's  right  to  be  well  born  a  practically  realizable 
ideal?  I  should  mention  as  the  first  of  these  an  in- 
^telligent,  conscious  desire  on  the  part  of  men  and 
women  to  be  parents.  That  is  to  say,  the  very  thing 
that  the  present  generation  appears  to  be  avoiding, 
must  be  made  the  starting  point  in  any  really  effec- 
y  tive  scheme  of  racial  improvement.  Desire  is  not 
only  the  mainspring  of  the  every-day  conduct  of  men, 
it  is  also  the  mainspring  of  biological  evolution.  Chil- 
dren will  never  be  well  born  until  they  are  desired 
by  the  men  and  women  who  are  potential  parents.  A 
generation  that  does  not  desire  children  will  be  as 
weak  in  its  power  to  propagate  fit  children  as  would 
a  generation  that  did  not  desire  culture  or  wealth,  in 
the  power  to  become  educated  or  prosperous.  No 
occult  influence  of  adverse  mental  states  upon  the 
procreation  of  healthy  offspring  is  here  implied.  The 
situation  is  bad  enough  if  we  limit  ourselves  to  the 
tangible  physiological  condition  and  agencies  that  may 
result  from  an  apathetic  or  hostile  attitude  towards 
the  bearing  of  children.  Dr.  W.  A.  Chandler,  a 
physician  of  over  thirty  years'  standing,  gives  it  as 
I  his  opinion  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  human 
\  race  die  before  birth,  and  that  three-fourths  of  all 
these  are  deliberately  killed.  Says  Dr.  George  J. 
Englemann,  in  an  article  on  "The  Decreasing  Fecun- 
dity of  Women,"  "The  avoidance  or  prevention  of 
conception,  if  possible,  the  premature  termination  of 
pregnancy,  if  need  be,  are  factors  far  more  potent 


WELL  BORN  221 

in  the  causation  of  decreasing  fecundity  than  is  the 
progress  of  gynetic  science  for  the  contrary." 

The  significance  of  such  extremes  of  atrophied 
parental  desires  is  only  too  evident.  "What  must  be 
the  effects  upon  the  physical  and  psychical  life  of  a 
child  that  runs  the  gauntlet  of  drugs  and  other  de- 
structive agencies  throughout  its  embryonic  existence  ? 
Education  in  the  home,  the  school  and  the  church 
should  make  such  things  impossible.  Young  men 
and  women  should  be  taught,  from  early  adolescence 
on,  intelligent  and  reverent  ideals  of  parenthood. 
Young  children  themselves  should  be  brought  up  in 
an  atmosphere  of  precept  and  example  to  think  of 
parenthood  as  the  only  fully  adequate  realization  of 

/individual  and  social  welfare.  Dr.  Englemann  says: 
"There  is  no  question  as  to  the  baneful  sentiment 
which  is  gradually  developing  among  young  people 

Jl^that  bearing  children  belongs  to  low  life,  and  is  de- 
grading, which  now^  and  then  becomes  evident  in  as- 

•persions  cast  upon  those  with  large  families,  imply- 
ing that  their  life  is  vulgar  and  sensual."  Similar 
sentiments  are  being  scattered  broadcast  in  novels, 
magazine  articles,  and  public  addresses  at  the  present 
time,  mostly,  it  is  strange  to  say,  by  women.  Thus 
a  woman  of  large  celebrity  in  the  more  aggressive 
circles  of  new  womanhood,  writing  in  the  New  York 

I  Independent  a  few  years  ago,  tells  us  plainly  that  in- 
sistence on  the  duties  of  motherhood  is  an  impertinent 
interference  with  private  rights.  Such  sentiments 
should  be  offset  by  intelligent,  yet  idealistic,  inter- 
pretations of  the  privileges  and  duties  of  parenthood, 
and  the  holding  before  the  imaginations  of  children 
and  young  people  of  everything  in  art,  literature, 
religion,  and  every-day  life  that  can  inspire  a  deep 
and  lasting  desire  to  be  parents. 

Vol.   1—15 


\ 


222  WELL  BORN 

Next  in  importance  to  a  normal  desire  for  parent- 
hood is  fitness  for  it.  This  order  is  suggested  be- 
cause of  a  conviction  that  if  parental  desire  be  suffi- 
ciently strong  and  have  intelligent  direction,  it  will 
naturally  work  towards  parental  fitness.  Fitness  for 
parenthood    involves   essentially   three   things: 

y.  (1)  Biological  fitness,  including  the  fundamen- 
tal, physical,  and  psychical  constitution  and  capaci- 
ties of  the  individual,  with  their  heredity  implica- 
tions;   (2)    Moral  fitness,  including  ideals,  habit,  and 

^  conditions  resulting  from  a  moral  regimen  of  life; 
and  (3)  Educational  fitness,  including  knowledge  and 
training  more  particularly  for  the  functions  of  parent- 
hood, and  for  affording  the  offspring  adequate  pro- 
tection and  support.  Such  parental  fitness  is  the 
product  of  numerous  biological  and  social  forces  and 
involves  problems  much  too  complex  for  this  paper. 
It  must  suffice  to  indicate  the  more  popular  and 
practical  aspects  of  the  subject. 

To  begin  with,  biological  fitness  for  parenthood, 
being  essentially  a  matter  of  congenital  and  heredity 
constitution,  falls  naturally  within  the  sphere  of  legal 
control.  Here  the  physician,  the  alienist,  the  crimin- 
ologist, or  other  expert  in  the  diagnosis  of  human  de- 
generacy must  determine  a  man's  or  a  woman's  fitness 
to  bear  offspring.  There  is  no  question  that  here 
are  vast  social  problems  and  social  duties  that  will 
more  and  more  force  themselves  upon  men  as  in- 
telligence increases,  and  a  scientific  imagination  and 
conscience  become  active  in  shaping  the  welfare  of 
mankind.  But  the  individuals  affected  by  these  more 
crucial  standards  of  biological  fitness,  are  fortunately 
not  in  a  majority,  and  must,  as  society  advances,  be 
progressively  eliminated.  For  the  great  majority  of 
individuals,  other  agencies  will  determine  the  qualities 


; 


WELL  BORN  223 

and  degrees  of  parental  fitness.     Such  agencies  are 
the  home,  the  school,  the  church  and  other  social  in- 
stitutions that  have  to  do  with  the  nurture  and  train- 
ing of  children.    All  these  agencies  should  be  progres- 
sively modified  in  the  direction  of  providing  a  more 
adequate  training  for  parenthood.  In  general  through- 
out these  agencies  that  affect  the  fitness  of  men  and 
women  to  be  parents,  a  more   definite  standard   of 
parental  training  must  prevail.     The  biological  truth 
.  that  the  principal  objective  point  of  human  develop- 
'  ment  is  parenthood,  should  be  placed  at  the  basis 
of  all  the  care  and  training  of  children  and  young 
people.    Their  physical  and  mental  growth  and  train- 
ing should  be  shaped  with  this  end  constantly  in  view. 
Anything   in    the   home,    school,    or   elsewhere,    that 
/sacrifices  parenthood  upon  any  altar  of  individual  or 
'  social  idolatry  whatsoever,  is  a  crime  against  society, 
no  less  than  ultimately  against  the  individual  man  or 
woman.     A  girl's  development  in  the  direction  of  a 
Kvell  endowed  maternity  is  vastly  more  important  in 
'the  public  school  or  college  than  any  possible  intel- 
lectual attainment.    What  shall  it  profit  a  woman  if 
she  gain  the  whole  world  of  academic  distinction,  and 
/  lose  the  power  of  healthy,  efficient  motherhood? 

In  addition  to  this  general  parental  ideal  in  the  Educauon  for 
home  and  school,  children  and  young  people  should 
be  definitely  educated  for  parenthood.  Fifty  years 
ago,  Herbert  Spencer  framed  an  indictment  against 
educational  systems  that  unfortunately  still  holds  true 
of  most  of  our  high  schools  and  colleges.  "  If , "  says 
he,  *'by  some  strange  chance  not  a  vestige  of  us 
descended  to  the  remote  future  save  a  pile  of  our 
school  books  or  some  college  examination  papers,  we 
may  imagine  how  puzzled  an  antiquary  of  the  period 
would  be  on  finding  in  them  no  indication  that  the 


parenthood 


224  WELL  BORN 

learners  were  ever  likely  to  be  parents.  'This  must 
Jbe  the  curriculum  for  their  celibates,'  we  may 
fancy  him  concluding.  'I  perceive  here  an  elaborate 
preparation  for  many  things :  especially  for  reading 
[the  books  of  extinct  nations  and  of  co-existing  nations 
'(from  which  indeed  it  seems  clear  that  these  people 
have  very  little  worth  reading  in  their  own  tongue)  ; 
but  I  find  no  reference  whatever  to  the  bringing  up 
of  children.  They  could  not  have  been  so  absurd 
as  to  omit  all  training  for  this  gravest  of  responsibili- 
ties. Evidently,  then,  this  must  have  been  the  school 
course  of  one  of  their  monastic  orders. '  ' '  How  much 
longer  will  our  high  schools  and  colleges,  especially 
those  in  which  girls  and  young  women  are  educated, 
exclude  all  knowledge  relating  to  the  functions  of 
parenthood  ? 
Mness  Again,  moral  fitness  for  parenthood  ought  to  re- 

/ceive  greater  emphasis  in  the  training  of  young 
people.  Organic  appetites  should  be  curbed  and 
educated  in  the  interests  of  posterity ,'^s  well  as  in 
the  interest  of  the  individual.  The  supreme  tempta- 
tions of  the  sexual  life  would  be  easier  to  meet  if  the 
young  men  and  women  had  the  proper  ideals  of  a 
/  parental  significance  of  sexual  functions.  No  more 
powerful  inhibiting  impulse  could  be  evoked  than  that 
associated  with  the  pride  of  virile  fatherhood  and 
fertile  motherhood.  Similar  conditions  hold  true  of 
other  moral  temptations.  What  youth,  man  or  woman, 
would  practice  any  vice,  whether  of  drunkenness, 
/  licentiousness,  or  any  other,  if  they  regarded  their 
own  lives  as  primarily  the  media  of  transmission  in 
racial  development,  and  saw  in  every  violation  of  the 
moral  law,  the  possible  disease  or  death  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  human  race  dependent  upon  them? 


WELL  BORN  225 

Finally,  as  a  third  condition  favoring  the  right  of  \  f^^^^ 
the  child  to  be  well  born,  I  would  emphasize  the 
adaptation  of  parents  to  one  another.  Passing  over 
the  biological,  moral,  and  educational  adjustments  of 
hjusband  and  wife,  whose  necessity  has  been  implied 
in  what  has  already  been  said,  I  submit,  as  the  very 
culmination  of  parental  fitness,  romantic  or  ideal  love 
between  the  mother  and  the  father  of  the  child.  No 
child  can  be  well  born  that  is  the  product  of  a  love-  / 
less  marriage.  A  clearer  view  of  the  biological  im- 
plications of  romantic  love  will  sometimes  indicate 
the  poetic  sentiment  of  the  ages.  In  our  own  dem- 
ocratic society,  where  the  freedom  of  sexual  choice 
I  has  had  so  many  signal  vindications  in  happy  mar- 
j  riages,  and  in  the  splendid  homes  and  families  founded 
thereon,  there  is  little  need  of  enlarging  upon  this 
topic.  And  yet  there  are  cynics  in  our  midst,  and 
there  are  those  who  believe  that  such  a  science  as 
eugenics  is  incompatible  with  romantic  love.  I  be- 
lieve the  contrary.  I  regard  the  love  of  the  sexes 
as  an  integral  part  of  biological  evolution,  found  at 
every  stage  of  human  development,  in  a  gradually 
ascending  scale  of  influence,  becoming  stronger  and 
more  compelling  with  the  advance  of  civilization,  and 
destined  in  a  more  enlightened  and  more  ethical  fu- 
ture to  control  all  sexual  relations.  Only  where  this 
conjugal  love  exists,  can  there  be  that  complete 
reciprocity  of  life  which  makes  parenthood  the  crown- 
ing joy  of  conscious  human  experience,  as  it  is  the 
supreme  end  of  those  mighty  forces  that  drive  the 
race  of  men  forward  towards  their  unknown  future. 

In  the  drama  called  "The  Lion's  Whelp,"  there 
is  a  dialogue  between  an  old  man  and  a  youth.  Says 
the  old  man:  ''The  next  century  will  be  the  century 
of  the  child,  just  as  this  century  has  been  the  woman 's 


226  WELL  BORN 

century.  When  the  child  gets  his  rights,  morality 
will  be  perfected.  Then  every  man  will  know  that 
he  is  bound  to  the  life  which  he  has  produced,  with 
other  bonds  than  those  imposed  by  society  and  the 
laws.  You  understand  that  a  man  cannot  be  released 
from  his  duty  as  father  even  if  he  travels  around  the 
world ;  a  kingdom  can  be  given  and  taken  away,  but 
not  fatherhood." 

Says  the  youth :  "  I  know  this. ' ' 

Says  the  old  man  once  more:  ''But  in  this,  all 
righteousness  is  not  fulfilled — in  man's  carefully  pre- 
serving the  life  which  he  has  called  into  existence. 
No  man  can  early  enough  think  over  the  other  ques- 
tion, whether  and  when  he  has  the  right  to  call  life 
into  existence  at  all. ' ' 


XXIV 
FITNESS  FOR  MARRIAGE 

MARY  HARMON  WEEKS 

E  must  forget  Greek  and  Roman  civiliza- 
tions ;  study  our  present-day  life  in  the  light 
of  evolutionary  science ;  achieve  full  social 
consciousness;  and  proceed  to  build  that 
which  has  never  been  constructed  before — 'a  social 
body  for  the  soul  of  God.'  "  But  the  social  body 
is  based  upon  the  social  unit,  the  family,  therefore 
we  must  begin  to  build  up  this  unit  in  ways  hereto- 
fore unused  because  never  fully  recognized. 

* '  "Woman 's  natural  work  as  a  female  is  that  of  Health 
the  mother ;  man 's  natural  work  as  a  male  is  that  of  tb^^eoci^  unit 
a  father,  their  mutual  relation  to  this  end  being  a 
source  of  joy  and  well  being  when  rightly  held."  It 
is,  however,  a  mutual  relation,  and  the  part  of  the 
father  in  this  relation  has  never  been  rightly  em- 
phasized. The  family  to  be  a  social  unit  of  great 
value  must  be  strong,  healthy,  vital,  with  wrong 
tendencies  reduced  to  the  minimum,  with  right  ten- 
dencies at  their  maximum.  How  can  this  be  brought 
about  if  in  the  education  for  family  life  and  parent- 
hood, if  in  the  choice  of  mates  only  the  female  side 
of  this  mutual  relation  is  considered  as  a  dutv,  and 
the  requirements  made  of  the  male,  even  those  over 
which  he  might  have  had  full  control,  are  practically 
negligible  ?  "When  one  really  faces  the  question  of  the 
demands  actually  made  of  the  two  units  who  are  to 
combine   and  reproduce   the    family   unit,   they   are 

227 


228 


FITNESS  FOR  I^IARRIAGE 


Bequirements 
from  man  and 
woman 
unequal  and 
not  sufficient 


The  husband's 
qnalities 


found  to  be  on  the  one  hand  chastity,  on  the  other, 
providing  power.  Are  these  the  only  characteristics 
necessary  to  the  performance  of  the  one  great  pur- 
pose of  man  and  woman?  Are  these  the  basis  of  the 
social  unit? 

The  man  expects  to  find  in  a  woman  a  good  home- 
maker  and  a  good  mother,  but  does  he  take  any  in- 
telligent means  of  discovering  that  she  will  be.  What 
right  has  he  to  provide  for  his  children  a  mother 
whose  potentialities  as  a  breeder  of  children  sound 
and  healthy  in  body  and  mind  are  wholly  unknown 
to  him?  What  right  has  he  to  form  a  union  with 
one  who  may  furnish  germ  plasm  which  increases  the 
weakness  of  his  own  instead  of  minimizing  it,  and, 
produces  for  the  third  arc  of  the  family  circle  progeny 
which  is  to  be  less  efficient  than  that  from  which  it 
sprang  ? 

Does  any  one  ask  what  qualities  the  man  brings 
to  this  union,  which  fit  him  for  his  share  in  the  mak- 
ing of  a  true  home?  Has  he  acquired  the  self- 
control  that  leads  to  the  denials  of  sex-self  required 
by  true  parenthood,  and  lacking  which,  no  true  home- 
making  is  possible?     Has  he  formed  any  ideals  as  to 

^what  constitutes  a  true  home?     And  has  he  resolved 

•to  do  his  part  in  making  it?     Has  he  given  evidence 

of  that  consideration  for  others  which  is  essential  to 

'  agreeable  companionship  ?  Has  he  the  basic  qualities 
for  the  friendship  which  is  the  ultimate  outcome  and 
lasting  quality  of  right  marriage  ? 

Has  his  record  been  searched  for  those  homely, 
every-day  habits  and  qualities,  which  sound  so  un- 
romantic,  but  which  nevertheless,  when  sex  attraction 
has  somewhat  palled,  serve  to  make  life  together  still 

'  lovely  ?     Has  he  been  trained  to  unselfishness,  care- 

I  fulness,  reasonable  thrift,  desirable  personal  habits  ? 


•' 


FITNESS  FOR  MARRIAGE  229 

Has  he  developed  no  peculiarities  likely  to  grow  into 
unpleasant  obsessions  as  years  pass? 

In  other  words,  does  he  come  to  the  mutual  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife,  of  father  and  mother  with 
the  qualities  capable  of  making  that  relation  ' '  a  source 
of  joy  and  well  being"?  If  so,  the  problem  of  true 
home-making  is  solved  for  these  mates  and  the  social 
unit  is  formed  by  those  "who  have  good  health,  a 
sense  of  human  obligation,  and  a  belief  in  their  own 
fitness  for  parenthood." 

It  is  evident  even  from  the  brief  consideration  of     ?/i^t??°°*" 

01  health 

Eugenics  which  our  space  allows,  that  the  good  health 
of  parents,  while  it  cannot  affect  the  character  of  the 
traits  transmitted  to  children,  does  very  materially 
affect  the  vigor  and  ability  with  which  they  are  exer- 
cised. "Good  mothers  must  have  a  certain  sort  of 
hardihood  which  comes  from  the  wise  care  of  the 
body — a  life  in  the  open,  the  right  kind  of  nourishing 
food,  occupation  which  gives  bodily  exercise  without 
undue  overdraft  of  vitality."  This  must  be  equally 
true  for  fathers.  To  have  strong  and  vigorous  children, 
I  a  strong  and  vigorous  physique  is  necessary,  for  in 
such  a  physique,  nutrition  is  at  its  highest,  and  nutri- 
tion does  affect  the  transmitting  germs  and  so  vitally 
concerns  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  children-to-be. 
Every  boy  and  girl  should  be  taught  that  physical 
perfection  is  a  desirable  ideal.  A  cardinal  point  in 
a  boy's  education  is  that  duty  to  all  his  future  rela- 
tions as  husband,  father,  breadwinner,  citizen  and 
man,  requires  him  to  furnish  the  best  possible  ap- 
paratus— a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  Sir  James 
Paget  says:  ""We  want  more  ambition  for  health.  I 
should  like  to  see  a  personal  ambition  for  health  as 
keen  as  that  for  bravery,  for  beauty,  or  for  success 
in  athletic  games  or  field  sports.     I  wish  there  was 


230  FITNESS  FOR  I^IARRIAGE 

I   an  ambition  for  the  most  perfect  national  health  as 

I  there  is  for  national  renown  in  war,  in  art,  or  in 
commerce. ' '  Why  should  not  a  young  man  pride  him- 
self as  fully  on  a  well  developed,  well  nourished  body 

/  as  fitting  for  a  good  husband,  a  good  father,  good 
home-maker,  as  he  does  on  its  fitting  him  for  a  good 
runner  or  batter  or  oarsman?  All  the  kindness,  all 
the  generosity  of  a  father  can  never  make  amends 
for  physical  or  mental  disabilities  produced  in  chil- 

Xdren  as  the  results  of  an  unregulated  premarital  life. 
Only  selfish  desire  leads  the  man  or  woman  who  can- 
not produce  normal,  healthy  children  to  give  life  to 
others.  Is  it  impossible  to  create  a  conscious  respon- 
sibility as  to  such  matters  in  young  men  seeking 
mates  ? 

A  man  who,  through  all  his  youth  and  young 
manhood,  has  disregarded  the  ordinary  rules  of  health 
in  food,  exercise,  sleep  and  personal  habits,  is  little 
likely  to  be  a  good  husband  or  father,  and  certainly 
not  an  agreeable  companion.  With  inherited  traits 
which  he  has  made  no  attempt  to  minimize  by  right 
habits  of  thought  and  action,  he  may  lack  the  self- 
control  which  is  absolutely  necessary  in  one  who  as- 
sumes the  responsibility  of  training  children  and  of 
making  a  home  where  good  comradeship  is  essential 
to  success.  Yet  a  good  physical  condition  makes  self- 
control  easy,  while  disordered  digestion  notoriously 
makes  it  difficult.  Children  learn  physical  habits 
largely  by  example.  It  is  then  necessary  that  physical 
habits  essential  to  self-control  should  be  demanded  in 
the  man  who  seeks  to  be  a  parent. 

II.  G.  Wells  says  it  is  our  duty  to  "secure  an  ideal 
environment  for  children  in  as  many  cases  as  pos- 
sible." A  father  with  good  health,  right  habits,  and 
correct  ideals  should  be  a  part  of  this  environment, 


FITNESS  FOR  MARRIAGE 


231 


\ 


and,  next  to  the  mother  whom  he  selects  for  those 
children,  the  most  important  part.  Certainly  the  en- 
vironment of  the  child  should  be  good  health  and  all 
the  virtues  which  accompany  it. 

The  fact  of  parenthood  should  carry  with  it  th^ 
protection  of  a  good  home  through  all  the  formative 
period  of  child  life.  The  supplying  of  this  protec- 
tion is  the  parental  sacrifice  made  to  love  of  offspring 
and  the  need  of  home.  But  the  man  without  physical 
health  and  mental  vigor  cannot  assure  to  his  family 
this  protection  through  all  the  needed  years.  He  suc- 
cumbs more  readily  to  physical  diseases  and  mental 
defects  than  does  the  vigorous  man,  and  the  family 
may  be  left  at  its  most  critical  period  without  the 
shielding  arm  of  its  natural  protector.  The  young 
man  may,  however,  in  the  years  before  marriage,  build 
up  a  physical  condition  based  on  correct  bodily  habits, 
that  with  reasonable  care  would  insure  to  his  family 
the  life  upon  which  it  is  so  dependent. 
"^  Herbert  Spencer  says,  "On  observing  what  ener- 
gies are  expended  by  father  and  mother  to  attain 
worldly  success  and  social  ambition,  we  are  reminded 
how  comparatively  small  is  the  space  occupied  by 
their  ambition  to  make  their  descendants  physically, 
morally  and  intellectually  superior.  Yet  this  is  the 
ambition  which  will  replace  those  they  now  so  eagerly 
pursue,  and  which,  instead  of  perpetual  disappoint- 
ments, will  bring  permanent  satisfaction." 

That  certain  diseases,  due  to  vicious  sex  habits, 
affect  even  the  seemingly  almost  effect-proof  germ 
plasm  through  which  the  father  gives  his  share  in 
the  life  of  his  child,  is  proved  beyond  a  doubt.  It  is 
the  verdict  of  all  students  of  the  laws  of  reproduc- 
tion. In  regard  to  this  awful  fact,  the  world  seems 
to  be  in  the  condition  of  the  people  of  whom  Ruskin 


Parenthood 
should   suppl; 
a  good 
home 


The  true 
ambition  for 
parenthood 


232  FITNESS  FOR  MARRIAGE 

says  "they  have  looked  on  grass  but  have  never  seen 
it."  The  law  is  heard  but  not  known.  Surely  if  it 
could  once  impress  itself  upon  the  world's  conscious- 
ness, young  people  would  be  taught  a  deeper  sense 
of  responsibility  to  the  coming  generation.  Woman 
would  require  a  clean  bill  of  health  from  the  father  of 
her  children,  and  men  would  exercise  such  self- 
control  as  would  make  them  fit  for  the  performance 
of  the  one  first  purpose  of  their  being, 
hiaith*  "Man  and  woman  should  be  so  full  of  health  as 

to  be  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  external  con- 
ditions of  life,  and  to  make  ready  self-adjustment  to 
all  its  changes.  He  should  not  be  deemed  thoroughly 
healthy  who  is  made  better  or  worse,  more  or  less  fit, 
by  every  change  of  weather  or  food,  or  who  is  bound 
to  observe  exact  rules  of  living.  It  is  good  to  observe 
rules,  and  to  some  they  are  absolutely  necessary,  but 
it  is  better  to  need  none  but  those  of  moderation,  and 
observing  these,  to  be  willing  to  live  and  work  hard 
in  the  widest  variations  of  food,  air,  climate,  bathing 
and  other  sustenances  of  life." 


XXV 

THE  WRONG  KIND  OF  VOCATIONS  FOR  A 

FATHER 

WILLIAM  BYRON  FORBUSH 

PHASE  of  minor  eugenics  which  is  begin- 
ning to  assume  importance  in  the  character 
development  of  children,  is  the  moral  in- 
fluence of  the  parent's  vocation  upon  his 
child.  It  may  seem  a  far  cry  to  a  young  man  that 
his  calling  in  life,  and  with  that  calling  his  place  of 
residence,  the  circumistances  of  his  future  occupation 
and  home  life,  and  even  his  future  associates  in  busi- 
ness, should  all  depend  directly  upon  the  contingency 
that  he  may  sometime  become  the  parent  of  children. 
And  yet  so  important  are  all  these  things  in  relation 
to  the  sensitiveness  of  a  child  and  so  difficult  is  it  for 
a  man  to  extricate  himself  from  a  calling  to  which 
he  has  been  specifically  trained,  even  though  the  in- 
fluences of  that  calling  should  prove  detrimental  to 
his  offspring,  that  it  would  seem  to  be  a  matter  of 
prudential  common  sense  to  consider  the  implications 
of  any  vocation  as  to  future  domestic  and  parental 
relations. 

There  are  vocations  which  are  detrimental  to  Je°rimentai  t 
children  because  they  are  immoral  or  anti-social  in  children 
themselves.  Most  thoughtful  youths  would  acknowl- 
edge that  keeping  a  saloon  is  a  business  of  this  type. 
The  man  who  has  elastic  moral  notions  upon  the  social 
value  of  the  saloon  would  find  himself  becoming  more 
stringent  when  he  imagined  himself  as  seen  in  the 

233 


234 


THE  FATHER'S  VOCATION 


mpensations 
good 

cations  for 
thers 


business  from  his  own  growing  child's  standpoint. 
The  number  of  socially  doubtful  occupations  is  in- 
creasing as  the  national  conscience  is  growing  more 
sensitive.  Not  long  ago  a  man  withdrew  from  the 
bucketshop  business  because  he  did  not  want  his 
children  to  have  to  tell  by  what  means  their  father 
got  his  money.  The  direct  curse  of  anti-social  voca- 
tions upon  the  children  of  those  who  pursue  them 
seems  well  nigh  unavoidable.  The  'WTiter  saw  the 
other  day  a  moving  picture  film  concerning  a  physi- 
cian who,  in  order  to  set  his  extravagant  son  up  hand- 
somely, invented  and  dispensed  a  concoction  which 
fastened  upon  its  victims  the  drug  habit.  The  film 
showed  with  horrible  realism  and  naturalness  how 
the  son  himself  was  ruined  by  his  father's  diabolical 
product.  There  is  hardly  an  undesirable  business 
that  does  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  affect  the  ideals, 
the  habits  or  the  reputation  of  the  next  generation. 
Even  could  these  results  be  avoided,  what  man  can 
anticipate  with  equanimity  leaving  to  his  sons  or 
daughters  wealth  that  has  been  ill  gotten  or  that 
has  ruined  the  bodies  or  souls  of  its  operatives,  or 
whose  influence  upon  the  body  politic  is  to  do  evil? 
It  is  surely  not  a  too  heroic  choice  during  the  years 
of  decision  to  take  a  pathway  along  which  shall  bloom 
glory  and  not  shame  to  one's  descendants. 

On  the  other  hand  one  of  the  most  attractive  al- 
lurements to  some  callings  in  which  the  financial  re- 
ward is  not  great  is  that  they  involve  a  stainless  or 
even  an  inspiring  influence.  A  few  weeks  ago  a  group 
of  the  professors  of  a  small  but  noble  middle  western 
college  were  assembled  to  recognize  the  thirtieth  an- 
niversary of  the  acquirement  of  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy  by  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  the 
faculty.    The  informal  speeches  dwelt  naturally  upon 


THE  FATHER'S  VOCATION 


235 


the  hardships  which  had  been  undergone  by  the  others 
in  attaining  their  own  degrees  and  upon  the  reasons 
for  their  early  choices  of  the  arduous  profession  of 
teaching.  The  confession  was  made  unanimously  and 
cheerfully  that  the  monetary  sacrifices  both  in  secur- 
ing an  education  and  in  doing  their  quiet  but  in- 
fluential work  were  more  than  swallowed  up  by  the 
consciousness  of  good  influences  exerted  upon  the  com- 
ing generation,  among  whom  several  enumerated  their 
own  children. 

Another  set  of  vocations  is  detrimental  to  children 
because  they  involve  unfavorable  surroundings  and 
companions.  An  adult  easily  neglects  these  influences 
as  regards  himself,  but  he  can  hardly  do  so  as  related 
to  his  own  children.  A  j^outh  who  intends  to  marry  may 
well  hesitate,  for  example,  to  become  a  hotelkeeper 
since  this  involves  the  most  artificial  and  unwhole- 
some domestic  atmosphere  in  which  to  rear  a  child.  An 
employer  of  labor  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  noticed  a  while 
ago  an  unusually  expert  new  w^orkman  at  a  bench. 
He  engaged  him  in  conversation,  and  ventured  to  ask 
why  he  had  been  willing  to  come  to  Rochester  to  work 
for  the  moderate  wage  which  this  especial  plant  could 
afford  to  pay.  The  workman  told  him  that  he  had 
come  up  from  the  south  for  the  sole  benefit  of  his 
children  because  he  had  heard  that  Rochester  had 
such  good  schools,  which  were  also  open  evenings  for 
the  social  welfare  of  all  the  people.  He  expressed  sur- 
prise that  his  employer  should  regard  his  action  as 
unusual.  "Anj^  of  us  would  move  to  Colorado  for  the 
sake  of  the  health  of  a  sick  child.  How  much  more 
important  are  schooling  and  morals!"  That  such  a 
sentiment  is  growing  may  be  seen  in  the  increasing 
number  of  new  families  that  are  settling  in  college 
centers  like  Oberlin,  Ohio,  and  who  knows  how  many 


Vocations  In 
relation  to 
children's 
environment 


236  THE  FATHER'S  VOCATION 

parents   have   been   attracted    to    the    metropolis    of 
Michigan  by  its  motto,  ' '  In  Detroit  Life  Is  Worth  Liv- 
ing. ' ' 
fathT/*and  °  Perhaps  even  a  more  important  factor  in  the  choice 

chudren  q£  ^  vocation  is  the  question  as  to  the  relation  of  that 

calling  to  the  presence  of  both  parents  in  the  home. 
The  writer  once  lived  in  a  seafaring  town,  where  the 
skippers  went  forth  on  three  year  voyages  in  tramp 
steamers  around  the  world.  He  remembers  one  in- 
stance in  which  a  father  departed,  leaving  in  charge 
of  their  mother  two  adolescent  sons  who  grew  during 
his  absence  so  that  he  did  not  recognize  them  upon 
his  return.  This  surely  meant  not  alone  an  unfair 
share  of  burden  for  the  wife,  but  the  actual  robbery 
of  these  children  of  their  rights  of  a  father  during 
the  years  when  sons  need  a  father  most.  It  seems  a 
singular  coincidence  that  on  this  very  day  when 
these  lines  are  being  written,  the  writer  should  have 
been  talking  with  a  3''0ung  man  who  stated,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  that  he  had  recently  sacrificed  a  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year  of  his  income  in  order  to  curtail 
his  travels  so  that  his  absences  from  his  child  should 
be  less  frequent.  A  thoughtful  man  was  seriously 
questioning  recently  whether  foreign  missionaries,  who 
send  their  children  to  America  to  be  brought  up  in 
missionary  homes,  can  possibly  do  enough  good  in 
heathen  lands  to  make  up  for  the  irreparable  loss 
which  these  children  suffer,  deprived  of  natural 
parental  influences.  Social  philanthropists  are  al- 
ready awake  to  the  peril  of  the  driving  forth,  through 
economic  stress,  to  daily  toil  of  mothers,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  whom,  in  America,  are  assisting  in- 
efficient or  indolent  husbands,  to  the  serious  destruc- 
tion of  home  influence  and  the  multiplication  to  their 
children  of  moral  hazards.    It  may  not  be  out  of  place 


THE  FATHER'S  VOCATION  237 

even  here  to  suggest  that  the  practical  homelessness 
in  wealthy  homes  where  either  parent,  and  especially 
the  mother,  is  busy  in  society  or  in  saving  the  world 
through  some  pet  philanthropy  or  reform,  means  just 
as  serious  a  deprivation  to  her  children.  Children 
brought  up  by  governesses  and  butlers  do  not  turn 
out  any  better  than  those  brought  up  in  the  street. 
It  is  a  question,  too,  whether  the  dumping  of  the  child 
problem,  in  England  or  America,  upon  the  private 
school  is  much  better.  The  private  school  is  a  make- 
shift; it  is,  after  all,  a  kind  of  orphanage.  One  fact 
which  is  stimulating  the  countryward  movement  is 
the  realization  that  a  strap-hanging  father  is  too  tired 
when  he  reaches  his  suburban  home  at  night  to  take 
his  share  in  the  nurture  of  his  children.  The  farm 
is  about  the  only  place  where  a  real  partnership  be- 
tween parents  and  children  is  still  possible. 

But,  after  all,  the  best  way  to  emphasize  the  un- 
wisdom of  unnecessary  widowhood  on  the  part  of 
wives  and  needless  orphanhood  of  children  is  to  pic- 
ture in  an  inspiring  way  the  richness  and  glory  of 
the  heritage  of  children  for  whom  their  future  fathers 
and  mothers  made  foreseeing  preparation  of  a  noble 
vocation,  wholesome  surroundings  and  the  possibility 
of  intimate  companionship. 


XXVI 
WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE  ? 

DAVID  GRAHAM  PHILLIPS 

Y  marriage  is  here  meant  not  merely  going 
through,  the  marriage  ceremony,  to  lead  im- 
mediately afterward  a  more  or  less  hideous 
life  of  quarreling,    of    privation    ashamedly 
concealed ;  nor  does  it  mean  drawing  precarious  ali- 
mony  or  going  back  home  to   live  with  papa   and 
mama,  without  alimony.     The  word  is  here  used  in 
the  sense  of  real  marriage — embarking  in  an  enter- 
prise that  gives  reasonable  promise  of  permanence. 

Marriage  is  a  business  that  actually  concerns  man 
as  much  as  it  concerns  woman.  But  man  refuses  to 
see  it  that  way ;  and,  as  he  holds  the  pursestrings, 
''what  he  says  goes."  He,  being  shallow  after  the 
average  human  fashion,  sees  only  the  surfaces  of 
things.  He  sees  in  marriage  a  means  of  satisfying  a 
certain  side  of  his  nature  which — for  lack  of  a  better 
/•descriptive  term — may  be  called  the  domestic  side. 
He  selects  a  woman — often  his  third  or  fourth  choice, 
rarely  the  woman  he  would  have  chosen  if  he  had  been 
free  to  pick  and  choose  at  wall.  He  selects  her  on 
trial.  All  he  can  judge  as  to  her,  in  the  incon- 
clusive investigations  of  acquaintance  and  court- 
ship, is  that  she  promises  well — chiefly  from  the 
sentimental  side,  the  one  he  concentrates  on  because 
it  is  the  only  one  he  is  permitted  to  investigate.  She 
promises  well.  If  she  ' '  makes  good, ' '  then  all  will  be 
pleasant.     If  she  doesn't,  so  much  the  worse  for  her. 

238 


WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE?  239 

He  ought  to  realize,  and  if  he  were  intelligent,  were 
properly  educated,  he  would  realize  that  he  has  just 
as  much  at  stake  as  she.  He  would  insist  on  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  girl's  suitableness  to  matrimony  in 
general  and  to  married  life  with  him.  But  he  isn't  a 
superior  intelligence,  and  he  fancies  a  matrimonial 
smash  will  damage  only  her.  So  he  lets  his  passions 
blind  him  and  idealize  her,  and  is  indifferent  as  to  the 
awakening. 

Unfortunately  his  wrong  notion  can  affect  him,  in 
the  event  of  disaster,  only  on  the  spiritual  side.  But 
if  the  girl  makes  the  same  blunder,  it  will  affect  her 
life  throughout. 

That  is  why,  in  practice  as  distinguished  from  The  plain 
theory,  marriage  is  vastly  more  important  to  the 
woman  than  to  the  man.  And  as  life  deals  never 
with  the  ought-to-be,  but  always  with  the  is,  woman 
must  accept  th?  fact  that,  if  she  wishes  a  successful 
marriage,  one  that  will  give  her  security  and  a  fair 
quality  of  human  happiness,  she  has  got  to  please  the 
man — not  only  before  marriage,  but  also  afterward. 
No  doubt  our  social  system  ought  to  be  organized 
differently.  No  doubt  it  is  a  patchwork  of  makeshifts, 
stupidities  and  cruelties.  But,  dear  lady,  the  social 
system  Avill  not  change  abruptly  and  such  changes 
as  are  making  are  not  to  your  liking.  If  you  are 
going  to  lead  a  conv:ntional  life,  you  have  got  to  ac- 
cept the  rules  of  the  game.  You  have  got  to  please  the 
man.  If  you  don 't,  you  may  make  him  uncomfortable, 
but  5^ou  will  make  yourself  wretched. 

So,  if  you  wish  to  be  a  person,  you  have  got  to 
educate  yourself  to  be  worth  while,  and  you  have  got 
to  educate  your  husband — if  he  needs  it — to  like  the 
sort  of  person  you  are,  and  to  like  the  sort  of  develop- 
ment you  are  capable  of.    If  you  rule  him  through  the 


240  WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE? 

sex  charm,  you  will  weaten  him  as  a  force  in  the 
world  of  action.  You  will  cut  down  his,  therefore 
your,  income ;  you  will  cut  off  your  opportunities  for 
development.  And  the  chances  are  that  your  attempt 
to  rule  him  in  that  crude,  lazy  way  will  soon  end  in 
humiliation  to  yourself.  If  he  is  a  growing  man,  he 
will  shake  you  off.  If  he  becomes  the  sort  you  have 
tried  to  make  him,  he  will  grow  tired  of  you  and  will 
spend  his  money  on  other  women. 

Have  you  happened  to  notice  what  poor  marriages 
are  made,  as  a  rule,  by  the  ' '  raving,  tearing  beauties, ' ' 
the  women  whose  sole  reliance  before  marriage — and 
therefore  presumably  afterward — was  the  sex  charm? 
Did  they  marry  poor  specimens  of  men  ?  or,  did  they 
make  their  men  poor  specimens?  No  matter  which. 
Either  way,  the  sex  charm  as  a  matrimonial  mainstay 
stands  convicted  of  worthlessness  and  worse. 

Husband  means  tv/o  things  to  a  woman — ^lover 
and  protector,  that  is,  provider.  And  if  she  is  an  in- 
telligent woman  or  a  woman  with  children,  unless  he 
means  protector,  he  means  nothing.  "Why  then  should 
woman  object  to  men 's  finding  two  elements  in  wife — 
mistress,  to  use  a  latterly  too  often  degraded  word  in 
its  fine  old  sense,  and  home-maker?  Or  why  should 
woman  become  irritated  if  man  reads  into  the  word 
"home-maker"  a  great  deal  of  significance?  Why 
should  she  be  angry  if  he,  idealizing  her  as  mistress, 
idealizes  her  also  as  home-maker  and  expects  of  her 
far  more  than  mere  indolent  and  inexpert  superinten- 
dence of  servants? 

As  we  are  honestly  trying  to  get  at  the  truth  about 
a  matter  of  supreme  importance  to  the  happiness  and 
to  the  progress  of  the  race,  let  us  put  aside  all  the 
vanity-tickling  lies  and  hypocrisies.  For  example,  let 
us  dismiss  the  poppycock  talk  wherewith  vain  women 


WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE?  241 

exaggerate  themselves  and  timid  women  hearten 
themselves — the  talk  about  every  woman  having  no 
end  of  chances  to  marry  well.  What  is  the  plain 
truth?  It  is  easy  for  a  man  with  any  sort  of  an  in- 
come to  find  a  promising  woman  willing  to  be  his  wife. 
It  is  difficult  for  a  woman — with  or  without  an  in- 
come— to  find  a  promising  man  willing  to  marry 
her — not  merely  a  man,  mind  you,  but  a  worth-while 
man,  even  a  prospectively  worth-while  man.  These 
being  the  facts  of  our  present  social  system,  is  it  not 
a  waste  of  time  to  grow  angry  because  conditions  are 
unjust  instead  of  just?  And  is  it  not  obvious  that 
conditions  being  as  they  are,  while  man  so  long  as  he 
can  pay  the  bills  may  neglect  education  in  what  con- 
stitutes a  successful  husband,  a  woman  may  not  neg- 
lect any  and  all  information  leading  to  knowledge  of 
what  constitutes  a  successful  wife? 

And,  further,  is  not  the  hardship  more  apparent     Being  a 
than  real?     Whether  the  husband  deserves  the  sue-     human 
cessful  wife  or  not  is  a  side  issue.     The  woman  who       ^"^ 
learns  how  to  be  a  successful  wife  learns  how  to  be 
a  successful  human  being — and  is  not  that  the  very 
climax  of  possible  achievement? 

The  French,  who  seem  to  have  thought  of  every- 
thing, have  thought  out  a  recipe  for  the  successful 
wife.  She,  they  say,  is  the  woman  who  continually 
renews  herself.  That  is,  she  is  an  intelligent,  alert, 
progressive  human  being.  She  takes  advantage  of 
the  new  opportunities  of  each  new  day  to  be  a  new 
person — a  cleverer,  wiser,  more  interesting,  more 
alluring  person.  Married  people  become  dolefully 
monotonous  to  each  other.  The  man  thinks  he  can 
afford  to,  because  he  pays  the  bills.  But  would  he 
begin  to  become  monotonous  if  the  woman  did  not 
start  it?     The  woman,  emerging  from  a  girlhood  of 


242  WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE? 

alarm  lest  she  should  never  be  able  to  achieve  the 
married  estate  and  finding  herself  actually  a  ' '  Mrs., ' ' 
feels  that  she  has  completed  her  life-work. 

She  fancies  she  need  do  nothing  more.  She  begins 
to  relax,  to  wane,  to  go  to  seed  mentally  and  physi- 
cally— to  go  to  seed  none  the  less  though  she  conceal 
mental  deterioration  under  the  cheap  and  lazy  "cul- 
ture" clap-trap,  and  physical  deterioration  under 
paint,  powder  and  dress-makers'  devices  for  "faking- 
up  "  a  decently  appearing  bod3^ 

Now,  whether  or  not  her  husband  is  wise  or  right 
in  letting  himself  become  monotonous  to  her,  is  his 
so  doing  any  excuse  for  her?  Does  she  owe  nothing 
to  herself?  Is  it  not  a  reflection  upon  her,  and  a 
serious  reflection,  that  she  has  lost  her  grip  upon  his 
attention  and  upon  his  interest?  You  often  hear 
women  say,  ' '  Oh,  a  man  soon  growls  tired  of  what  he 
has."  But  would  he,  if  what  he  had  wasn't  itself 
tiresome?  If  it  weren't  refusing  to  make  the  effort 
required  in  becoming  something  different  each  day — 
something  new,  something  developed  by  twenty-four 
hours  more  in  charm  and  in  intelligence? 
hi^^i  ctuai  About  the   matter  of  intelligence.   There   is   un- 

wife  ending  silly  talk  about  the  divorce  of  intelligence  and 

heart.  If  intelligence  meant  the  wearisome  acquiring 
of  moldy  culture  stuff  for  conversational  showing-off, 
there  might  be  something  in  it.  But  intelligence  is 
no  such  thing.  Why  do  men  fly  from  so-called  intel- 
lectual women  as  tiresome,  cold  and  insincere — as 
unwomanly  ?  Because  they  are  not  only  unwomanly, 
but  unhuman.  A  man  of  any  sort,  least  of  all  a  man 
of  the  live  sort,  docs  not  wish  to  hear  commonplaces 
or  sheer  twaddle  about  art,  science,  literature  and  so 
on.  What  intellectuality  is  there  in  such  remarks  as 
"I  think  Keats  is  more  spiritual  than  Browning,  don't 


WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFEI  243 

you?"  or  "Doesn't  Corot  give  you  more  sense  of  the 
poetry  of  things  than  Rousseau  ? ' '  Great  artists,  great 
writers,  great  scientists,  don 't  talk  that  dull  nonsense. 
Why  should  a  "business  man"  be  condemned  be- 
cause he  yawns  at  it  and  flies  from,  the  home  where 
it  poisons  everything? 

Intellectuality  means  intelligence — aliveness — say- 
ing and  thinking  something  new,  something  personal, 
therefore  original,  about  whatever  comes  up.  There 
are  women  who  know  how  to  entertain  their  hus- 
bands with  accounts  of  the  household  and  the  ser- 
vants. Those  women  are  intellectual,  though  they 
never  mention  Ibsen  or  Maeterlinck  or  whoever  may 
be  the  butt  of  the  culture  vapidity  of  the  hour.  There 
are  women  who  bore  their  husbands  with  cook  talk 
and  maid  squabble.  They  are  just  as  unintellectual 
as  the  women  who  weary  with  curtain  lectures  fuU 
of  commonplaces  about  science,  art,  and  novels. 

True  intellectuality — an  alive,  interested,  interest- 
ing mind — is  every  bit  as  attractive  as  sex  charm. 
No  woman  need  be  afraid  to  be  truly  intellectual.  It 
will  not  make  her  less  attractive.  It  ^vill  not  make 
her  cold.  Intellectuality  can  be  trusted  to  have 
more  heart  than  ignorant  impulsiveness. 

But  as  between  the  dreary  poseuse  and  the  shal- 
low woman,  wath  nothing  but  sex  charm  and  no  pre- 
tense to  anything  else,  why  any  man  not  himself  a 
faker  ^\^ll  choose  without  hesitation  the  shallow 
woman. 

Few  women  give  thought  to  the  science  and  art 
of  loving.  They  think  in  a  crude  way  of  the  surface 
sex  charms  and  use  them  in  attracting  men,  though 
rarely  with  any  great  skill.  But  of  love  they  think 
not  at  all.  They  think  chiefly — after  marriage — of 
being  loved.     But  is  there  not  something  more  im- 


244  WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE? 

proving,  less  time-wasting,  than  sitting  round  watch- 
ing the  play  of  light  and  shade  upon  the  priceless 
jewel,  your  love,  and  wondering  on  whom  you  will 
bestow  it  ?  That  priceless  jewel  is  not  love.  It  is 
paste — it  is  self-love.  The  woman  who  is  thinking  of 
it  isn't  thinking  of  loving  somebody,  but  of  giving 
somebody  the  inestimable  privilege  of  loving  her. 
Now,  it  may  be  a  wonderful  privilege  to  be  al- 
lowed to  love  a  woman.  Certainly  enough  poets  and 
romancers  and  professional  male  love-makers  have 
said  so.  But  the  woman  who  marries  a  real-life  man 
and  wishes  to  hold  on  to  him  and  his  income  will  do 
well  to  forget  all  about  that  and  to  fix  her  mind  on 
loving  the  man.  Nagging  at  him  isn't  loving  him — 
nor  yet  is  sitting  in  his  lap  when  he  wants  to  read 
the  paper — nor  j^et  is  spending  all  his  money  for 
beautiful  clothes  ''to  make  other  men  envy  you, 
dear."  Nor  yet  is  any  other  of  the  tactless  or  ex- 
travagant or  vain  things  which  pass  for  loving  with 
people  who  don't  have  to  endure  them.  But  loving 
is  consideration  and  thoughtfulness,  is  spending  his 
money  as  if  it  were  your  own,  not  as  if  it  were  the 
proceeds  of  a  lucky  lottery  ticket. 
Make  yourself  Before  deciding  that  he  is  not  good  enough  for 

goca  enovLgii  "  o  o 

for  him  you,  try  to  love  him.     Try  to  make  him  good  enough 

for  you  by  making  yourself  good  enough  for  him. 
Don't  bother  so  much  about  whether  you  are  appre- 
ciated or  not ;  try  to  make  yourself  worth  appreciat- 
ing. "Who  among  the  older  and  more  experienced 
people  has  not  been  amused  and  disgusted  and  sad- 
dened by  the  spectacle  of  a  young  woman  with  noth- 
ing to  recommend  her  but  a  little  rather  mediocre 
sex  charm,  gravely  speculating  as  to  whether  this  or 
that  man  "understands"  her?  "Understands"? 
Nonsense!  What  is  there  to  "understand"  about  the 


WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE?  245 

average  young  person,  therefore  about  the  average 
young  girl?  She  has  no  knowledge  of  life,  no  ex- 
perience, only  a  commonplace  and  defective  educa- 
tion, an  exceedingly  limited  capacity  for  appreciat- 
ing any  of  the  realities.  She  is  precisely  like  her 
brother  of  the  same  age — a  possibility  and  a  promise. 
Her  sex  charm  invests  her  for  men  with  a  certain 
purely  fictitious  mystery.  A  man  marries  her;  the 
mystery  vanishes — for  him.  But  she  fatuously  de- 
ludes herself,  or,  rather,  lets  'her  vanity  delude  her, 
that  this  mystery  was  and  is  real.  And,  if  she  is 
physically  attractive,  the  man  who  is  not  married 
to  her  will  encourage  her  in  this  delusion. 

He  will  encourage  her  until  he,  too,  finds  out 
just  what  she  is  in  herself,  unaided  by  his  ardent 
fancy. 

Now,  the  only  sensible  thing  for  the  young  girl, 
the  young  wife,  to  do  is  to  develop  the  possibility 
there  is  in  her,  and  to  redeem  the  promise  which  that 
possibility  has  uttered.  How?  Certainly  not  by  the 
lazy  ways  of  "culture."  For  "culture"  is  to  true 
mental  capacity  precisely  what  finery,  paint,  false 
hair  and  penciled  eyes  are  to  true  physical  charm. 

The  real  thing  calls  for  thought  and  work ;  but  it 
also  produces  results. 

If  the  spectacle  of  the  plutocracy's  wives  and 
daughters  could  be  removed  from  our  women  of  the 
middle  class,  if  the  foolish  novels  of  "high  life,"  so 
grotesquely  idealizing  and  caricaturing  the  common- 
place, rather  vulgar  people  who  compose  aristocra- 
cies, could  be  taken  from  their  libraries,  a  good  be- 
ginning toward  successful  wives  and  women  might 
be  made.  Then  there  is  the  awful  dread  that  haunts 
most  girls  of  the  middle  class — the  dread  lest  no  man 
they  can  accept  will  ask  them.  That  ought  to  be  got 
rid   of,   too. 


246  WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE? 

That  dread  is  about  the  saddest  thing  in  our 
middle  class  social  system.  A  man  has  wide  choice 
of  ways  and  means  to  a  career.  A  woman — propos- 
ing to  give  her  life  to  being  a  wife  and  mother — has 
no  choice  but  to  sit  and  wait  in  fear  and  trembling 
for  some  man  to  give  her  the  chance  to  become  a 
somebody.  What  wonder  that  girls  make  the  fearful 
blunder  of  hastening  to  idealize  the  first  likely  man 
who  proposes — that  is,  they  hasten  to  sugar-coat  the 
pill  that  they  may  be  able  to  swallow  it.  What  won- 
der that,  once  securely  ' '  Mrs. ' '  they  begin  to  be  them- 
selves and  to  regret  and  to  look  longingly  about  or 
sink  down  in  apathy,  and  in  either  event  to  do  noth- 
ing to  fit  themselves  for  wifehood  and  motherhood! 
How  can  we  expect  fortunate  marriages  when  girls 
are  driven  into  marriage  by  fear? 
i^medy  '^^^  independence  of  the  middle  class  girl — ^her 

economic  independence.  Not  by  means  of  the  dowry 
or  of  the  divorce  with  alimony ;  for  the  dowered  or 
alimoniously  divorced  woman  only  fancies  she  is  in- 
dependent. But  real  independence — ability  to  do 
things  practical,  useful,  to  perform  salable  services — 
that  sort  of  education  will  make  her  fit  to  marry, 
and  worth  marrying. 

The  theory  of  parents  has  been  that  if  they  can 
work  the  girls  off  on  the  strength  of  their  sex  charm 
masquerading  as  ''spirituality"  or  "innocent 
purity,"  the  whole  of  parental  duty  has  been  done. 
This  will  not  do  nowadays.  We  have  learned  a  thing 
or  two.  We  have  learned — and  how  stupid  it  is 
of  us  not  to  have  realized  it  long  ago ! — that  just 
marrying  off  the  girl  by  a  trick  isn't  enovigh — ■ 
that  we've  got  to  produce  a  girl  worth  marrying. 
There  is  a  growing  shyness  among  middle  class 
men  as  to  marriage ;  there  is    a    growing    tendency 


WHAT  IS  A  SUCCESSFUL  WIFE?  247 

to  divorce;  there  is  a  growing  reluctance  to  pay  ali- 
mony. The  girl  may  not  get  a  man  to  feed,  clothe 
and  shelter  her,  or,  if  she  does,  she  is  liable  to  come 
back  on  her  parents'  hands  or  to  be  stranded. 

It  is  beside  the  mark  to  denounce  men  as  groTvdng 
coarser,  as  fickle  in  refusing  to  continue  excited  about 
the  girls  they  so  excitedly  married.  The  plutocracy 
can  take  its  badly  brought  up  daughters  abroad  and 
trade  them  off  there  with  the  aid  of  a  cash  bonus. 
But  the  middle  class  can't.  So  it  will  have  to  bring 
up  its  daughters  to  suit  the  home  market.  It  will 
have  to  consider  the  tastes  of  the  men — the  men  who 
don't  want  culture-slush,  nor  ability  to  spend  money 
as  freely  and  foolishly  as  any  plutocrat's  daughter, 
nor  absolute  ignorance  of  all  the  arts  of  life. 

We  need  men  who  are  trained  to  be  successful  hus- 
bands. But,  as  our  social  system  is  put  together,  it 
behooves  the  girls  not  to  wait  till  that  creed  comes 
to  market.  If  they  wash  to  be  loved  and  protected, 
would  they  not  be  wnser  if  they  busied  themselves  at 
learning  the  science  and  art  of  the  successful  wife  ? 

A  good  example  from  them  might  work  wonders 
with  the  men.  And  how  would  setting  such  an  ex- 
ample do  them  harm? — The  Delineator. 


XXVII 

MODEL  HUSBANDS 

ERHAPS  most  married  women  suppose  that 
they  possess  a  model  husband,  and  we  should 
be  sorry  to  say  anything  that  might  be  the 
means  of  dispelling  the  delusion.  We  feel 
sure  no  two  women  weigh  mankind  in  exactly  the 
same  scales.  What  one  woman  may  regard  as  virtues 
another  woman  may  regard  as  faults. 

A  model  husband  in  our  opinion  is  not  a  man  who 
alone  brings  wealth  to  his  home,  nor  one  who  endows 
his  wife  with  a  fine  social  position,  but  the  one  who 
gives  to  his  wife  the  best  of  himself ;  who  appreciates 
her  virtues. 

A  model  husband  may  be  a  day  laborer  who  re- 
turns to  his  home  at  night  with  a  hard  earned  dollar 
clasped  in  his  honest  hand,  and  adds  it  to  the  family 
fund  to  be  used  to  provide  necessary  comforts  for 
the  family.  He  shares  faithfully  with  his  wife  what- 
ever he  may  earn  by  trade  or  profession.  When  busi- 
ness matters  perplex  he  does  not  go  home  with  a  woe- 
ful tale  of  his  hardships  and  turn  the  bright  side  of 
his  character  to  his  associates,  but  he  comes  into  his 
home  with  a  cheerful  face  that  inspires  his  wife  with 
new  courage  after  a  day  of  perplexing  duties  which 
women  alone  have  to  meet,  and  in  their  monotony  be- 
come distasteful  to  the  most  patient  of  them. 

A  model  husband  does  not  hang  up  his  fiddle  at 
the  door,  to  be  taken  up  as  he  goes  out  to  entertain 
outsiders,  and  come  into  his  home  as  devoid  of  any 
suggestion  of  music  as  is  the  face  of  a  monk. 

248 


MODEL  HUSBANDS  249 

A  model  husband  is  one  who  will  share  every  hard- 
ship or  sorrow  life  may  bring  to  his  wife,  and  sweetens 
suffering  with  his  words  of  love  and  sympathy,  and 
when  age  and  infirmities  rob  her  of  her  personal 
charms  and  wrinkles  take  the  place  of  dimples,  his 
love  is  like  the  holly  that  blossoms  in  the  winter  of 
adversity. 

The  model  husband  does  not  allow  his  selfish 
nature  to  accord  to  himself  all  the  blessings  which 
come  with  a  well  kept  home,  and  permit  his  faithful 
wife  to  bear  all  the  burdens;  he  does  not  fret  and 
fume  if  a  sick  child  disturbs  his  peaceful  slumbers, 
declaring  urgent  business  duties  on  the  morrow  will 
demand  his  attention  and  he  cannot  lose  sleep,  yet 
can  spend  several  nights  at  the  club  or  lodge  each 
week  and  never  complain  of  heavy  eyelids. — Taney 
County  Republican. 


XXVIII 


Divorce  in 
the  United 
States 


Object  of  the 
family  not 
happiness 


THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OF  IVIARRIAGE 

REV.  LYMAN  ABBOTT,  D.  D. 
Read  before  the  Religious  Education  Association 

N  the  twenty  years  ending  1906,  there  were 
nearly  one  million  divorces  granted  in  the 
United  States.  That  means  one  tJiousand 
every  week,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  every 
working  day  in  the  year.  It  would  seem  as  though 
those  figures  were  sufficiently  significant.  But  the 
causes  for  which  these  divorces  are  granted  are  quite 
as  significant.  They  are  granted  for  every  kind  of 
cause  from  adultery  to  incompatibility  of  temper. 

Love,  binding  together  in  essential,  vital,  funda- 
mental unity  in  diversity,  man  and  woman,  creates 
the  family.  It  is  not  made  by  contract.  It  is  not  a 
bargain.  It  has  no  relation  to  partnership.  It  is  the 
one  fundamental  law  of  life.  Deeper  even  than  hu- 
manity, this  combination  of  the  sexes  runs  down  into 
the  animal  race,  yes !  do^'nl  into  the  vegetable  king- 
dom. It  is  the  universal  law  of  all  God's  creation. 
The  family  is  the  foundation  on  which  not  merely  the 
commonwealth,  not  merely  the  church,  but  the  whole 
of  life  itself,  rests.  Whatever  undermines  it  under- 
mines the  very  foundation  of  life,  and,  if  it  succeeded, 
would  bring  all  life  dowTi  in  one  gi'eat,  irretrievable, 
hopeless  chaos. 

And  the  object  of  this  family  is  not  the  happiness 
of  the  man  and  the  woman.    That  is  not  the  end  of  it. 


250 


THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OF  MARRIAGE    251 

If  it  fails  to  accomplish  that,  it  has  not  failed  of  its 
purpose. 

It  is  true  that  thtre  is  an  immeasurable  joy  in  the 
married  life.  But  that  is  not  the  end.  This  husband 
and  this  wife  have  not  come,  if  they  be  true  man  and 
woman,  seeking  for  joy.  This  man  has  come  seeking 
new  responsibilities,  new  burdens,  new  tasks,  a  larger 
duty;  and  this  woman  has  come — I  wonder  at  her 
courage  every  time  she  does — seeking  for  new  pains 
and  anguishes,  it  may  be  death  itself;  that  these  two 
may  join  with  their  Creator  in  giving  new  life  to  the 
world. 

The  escape  from  unhappiness  that  sometimes  comes 
in  marriage  is  not  divorce.  Fleeing  from  trouble  is 
the  first  escape  of  the  coward.  Fleeing  from  trouble 
is  the  last  escape  of  the  hero.  I  do  not  say  that  there 
are  not  times  w^hen  a  wife  may  leave  her  husband.  I 
do  not  even  say  that  there  may  not,  perhaps,  come 
times  when  a  husband  may  leave  his  wife.  But  I  do 
say  this:  They  do  not  occur  one  hundred  and  fifty 
times  a  day.  The  shame  of  it !  The  cowardice  of  it ! 
"Whenever  life  becomes  burdensome  lay  it  do^^^l. 

Shall  Abraham  Lincoln  lay  do\vn  his  presidency 
because  it  means  carrying  the  nation  as  a  burden  on 
his  shoulders  for  four  j'ears?  Shall  George  AVash- 
ington  lay  down  his  task  because  it  means  the  cavils 
and  corruption  of  a  Congress  plotting  against  him? 
Shall  William  of  Orange  lay  down  his  task  because 
it  means  mental  anguish,  while  he  struggles  wath 
the  parties  that  are  professing  to  support  him,  and 
are  really  working  against  him?  Shall  Jesus  Christ 
lay  down  His  work  because  He  would  escape  the 
mental  anguish  of  Gethsemane  and  the  crucifixion? 

"We  shall  not  get  rid  of  this  blot  that  breaks  up      New  pubuc 
our  families  by  mere  changes  m  laws — by  new  mar-     neceseary 


252    THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OF  MARRIAGE 

riage  laws,  divorce  laws,  whether  federal  laws  or 
state  laws.  We  must  go  deeper  than  that.  The 
church  has  a  duty  in  this  matter:  To  bring  home 
upon  its  congregations  the  truth  that  happiness  is 
not  the  end  of  life,  and  no  life  is  worth  living  that 
has  not  in  it  service  and  self-sacrifice. 

The  schools  have  a  duty  in  this  matter.     In  the 

eighteenth  century  girls  were  prepared  for  marriage. 

Now  it  is  not  considered  proper  to  suggest  to  a  girl 

that,  perhaps,  she  is  going  to  be  married.     She  just 

f  tumbles  into  it  by  accident. 

We  need  to  bring  to  bear  a  new  public  sentiment 
upon  our  schools  and  our  colleges,  in  regard  to  the 
whole  structure  of  society  and  the  harmony  of  life. 
For  I  hold  that  above  the  name  of  president,  or  king, 
or  bishop,  or  pope,  is  this  name  of  Home-builder.  And, 
in  our  homes,  we  fathers  and  mothers  have  a  duty  to 
perform — to  teach  our  boys  and  girls  the  mystery  of 
life  and  of  its  beginnings,  and  not  let  them  tumble 
into  the  knowledge  through  prurient  curiosity  and 
evil  counsellors. 

It  is  a  great  work  the  future  generation  has  be- 
fore it — to  drive  out  from  America  this  paganism 
that  is  rooted  in  individual  selfishness  and  bring  in 
the  Christian  ideal  of  marriage — a  permanent  social 
organism,  the  foundation  of  society,  built  on  the  law 
of  God,  revealing  the  love  of  God,  carrying  out  the 
life  of  God,  and  doing  the  creative  work  of  God. 


indi^duaiism  **The  modern  woman's  individualism  is  small  and 

ana  aiTorce 

selfish.  Her  sense  of  responsibility  is  shallow,  emo- 
tional and  ignorant.  One  outcome  of  the  constantly, 
increasing  spirit  of  individualism  is  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  divorce. 

**I  admit  that  it  is  frequently    better    that   two 


CO 


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THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OF  MARRIAGE   253 

persons  who  have  married  each  other  should  live 
apart,  sometimes  for  one  reason,  sometimes  for  an- 
other. It  is  even  true  that  some  women  when  leav- 
ing their  husbands  do  so  from  a  sense  of  duty.  They 
feel  that  it  would  not  be  right  for  them  to  stay  with 
them. 

' '  But  in  such  cases  a  separation  is  all  that  is  neces- 
sary, and  I  think  that  it  is  all  that  is  justifiable.  I 
am  afraid  that  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the  un- 
welcome truth  that  the  majority  of  divorces  are  ob- 
tained with  the  prospect  in  view  of  a  subsequent  union 
with  another  person  who  it  is  presumed  will  be  more 
congenial.  The  question  of  personal  happiness  enters 
in.  But  the  individualist  asks,  'Why  shouldn't  I  be 
happy?' 

' '  No  one  has  a  right  to  be  happy  at  the  expense  of 
society.  These  persons  make  a  mistake  in  assuming 
that  the  object  of  marriage  is  happiness.  Happiness 
may  be  an  incident  of  marriage,  but  the  purpose  of 
marriage  is  to  insure  the  permanence  of  the  family. 
Divorce  threatens  the  permanence  of  the  family,  there- 
fore it  is  preferable  that  the  happiness  of  individuals 
should  be  sacrificed  rather  than  that  divorce  should 
come  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  natural  panacea  for 
all  matrimonial  woes.  Duty  is  a  higher  word  than 
happiness. 

' '  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  say  that  women  seem 
to  grasp  at  this  solution  of  their  troubles  much  more 
frequently  than  do  men.  Men  seem  to  be  more  prone 
to  play  the  game,  to  abide  by  the  contract  even  if  it 
hasn't  turned  out  just  as  well  as  they  hoped  it 
would." — Mrs.  Margaret  Deland, 


Vol.    1—17 


XXIX 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME* 


CHARLES  FRANCIS  OSBORNE 


Difference 
between 
house  and 
home 


MORE  general  and  determined  movement 
toward  house  ownership  would  be  made  by; 
people  of  moderate  means  if  the  distinc- 
tion involved  in  the  two  words  ''house"  and 
"home"  were  more  generally  felt. 

Doubtless  it  is  the  desire  of  all  normal  men  and 
women  to  own  the  house  in  which,  in  due  time,  are 
to  be  developed  their  own  lives  toward  maturity,  and 
those  of  their  children  from  earliest  infancy.  But  no 
such  development  can  be  regarded  as  wholly  adequate 
which  is  not  sustained  by  the  endearing  memories  of 
home.  Yet  when  you  read  of  "Homes  for  $2,500.00," 
or  "Buying  a  Home  for  the  Price  of  Rent,"  re- 
member that  the  words  do  not  bear  the  meaning  they 
appear  to  have. 

A  house  is  a  commercial  product,  but  a  home  is 
not.  Home  is  the  house  plus  family  life.  That 
home  to  which  one  looks  back  with  the  most  sacred 
and  tender  memories  in  after  years  was  a  compound 
of  both.  Every  nook  and  corner  of  it  is  vividly  asso- 
ciated with  some  personality  or  event,  and  we  feel 
it  to  have  been  almost  alive  and  sentient,  so  harmo- 
nious do  these  relations  often  seem.  We  all  know  how 
hard  it  was  to  leave  such  a  house,  and  how  doubly 
bitter  was  the  trial  when  we  saw  it  pass  into  other 
and  unsympathetic   hands,    which   tore   down,    rear- 

*Froni   "The  Family  Home,"   by  permission  of  the  Penn  Pub- 
lishing  Co. 

254 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME 


255 


ranged,  and  "improved"  those  features  which  we 
think  of  as  an  absolutely  essential  part  of  our  earthl;^ 
existence. 

Family  life,  then,  being  regarded  as  the  essential 
basis  of  the  home,  we  may  reasonably  demand  of  the 
house  that  it  shall  be  adapted  to  the  fundamental 
characteristics  of  a  definite  family.  It  is  only  under 
such  conditions  that  correct  development  of  family 
character  can  occur.  A  house  which  is  so  badly 
arranged  or  is  so  deficient  in  the  essentials  of  orderly 
living  that  the  natural  and  proper  requirements  of 
the  particular  family  cannot  be  met,  leads  to  irrita- 
tion on  the  part  of  individual  members  and  the  for- 
mation of  habits  of  life  which  fall  below  the  ideal 
of  conduct,  and  results  in  an  unnatural  and  unde- 
veloped existence  of  the  family  as  a  whole.  A  friend 
of  the  author,  who  was  separated  from  his  second 
wife,  shortly  after  their  marriage,  said  that  his 
domestic  troubles  were  mainly  due  to  the  faulty 
arrangements  of  his  house.  Circumstances  other 
than  financial  compelled  him  to  live  in  a  country 
town  where  there  was  little  opportunity  of  choice 
offered  to  tenants. 

Every  effort  should  therefore  be  made,  where  one 's 
prospects  of  employment  permit,  to  build  or  purchase 
a  house  rather  than  rent  one.  Salaried  people  in 
large  cities,  while  they  may  never  be  assured  of 
security  in  any  particular  position,  are  usually  war- 
ranted in  assuming  that  the  field  of  their  future  work 
will  be  somewhere  within  the  city  limits;  and  this 
fixity  of  the  field  of  employment  justifies  house  own- 
ership. For  such,  it  is  sometimes  regarded  as  a  wiser 
financial  policy  to  leave  a  substantial  part  of  the 
purchase  money  in  the  form  of  a  mortgage,  as  the 
property  is  thus  acquired  more  easily  and  with  less 


The  Lome 
and   family 
life 


Ownerailp 

versus 

rent 


256  THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME 

risk,  and,  in  an  emergency,  may  be  the  more  easily 
disposed  of. 

Theory  and  experience  alike  declare  that  it  is 
economically  unsafe  for  any  one  of  limited  means  to 
expend  more  than  one-fifth  of  his  income  for  rent, 
or  its  equivalent.  If  this  ratio  is  exceeded,  some 
essential  of  life  is  necessarily  forced  below  its  normal 
supply,  and  health,  material  or  moral,  suffers.  When 
income  declines  to  the  point  where  only  the  barest 
existence  is  possible,  the  ratio  must  necessarily  be 
even  lower  than  one-fifth ;  though  in  congested  quar- 
ters of  the  city  where  the  worker  must  live  near  his 
work,  it  is  difficult  to  maintain  the  safe  ratio.  Yet, 
by  some  means  or  other  it  must  be  done,  or  disaster 
in  the  future  is  inevitable. 
Tb«  building  If  one  dcsircs  to  purchase  a  house,  it  can  be  done 

in  several  ways;  but  to  put  any  of  them  into  opera- 
tion it  is  essential  that  some  cash  reserve  shall  have 
been  accumulated  to  begin  with.  If  a  cash  payment 
can  be  made  of  part  of  the  purchase  price,  the  prop- 
erty can  usually  be  mortgaged  to  an  amount  sufficient 
to  cover  the  balance,  the  interest  on  the  mortgage 
being  about  equivalent  in  amount  to  a  fair  rental 
value  of  the  property.  If  one  is  so  fortunate  as  to 
live  within  a  territory  covered  by  the  operations  of 
a  local  "building  and  loan  society,"  he  will  find  that 
no  more  satisfactory  method  of  house  purchasing  for 
the  man  of  limited  means  has  ever  been  devised. 

The  way  in  which  such  a  society  operates  can  be 
best  illustrated  by  a  concrete  example.  Let  us  sup- 
pose B  wishes  to  purchase  a  house  that  is  offered  for 
sale  at  three  thousand  dollars.  Some  cash  in  hand 
is  required  by  the  society  as  an  evidence  of  good 
faith  and  responsibility.  Assuming  that  B  has  six 
hundred  dollars  to  apply  on  his  purchase,  there  is  a 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME  257 

balance  of  twenty-four  hundred  dollars  to  be  bor- 
rowed. This  amount  the  society  will  lend  him,  after 
having  assured  itself,  through  its  officers,  of  B  's  good 
character,  his  prospects  of  a  steady  income,  and  of 
the  adequate  value  of  the  property  on  which  the  loan 
is  desired.  To  repay  this  loan,  B  purchases  (say) 
twelve  "shares"  in  the  society  on  which  he  pays 
"dues"  of  one  dollar  per  month  per  share;  and  he 
pays  in  addition  one  dollar  per  month  interest ;  this 
latter  being  computed  at  six  per  cent.  This  makes 
a  total  payment  of  twenty-four  dollars  per  month, 
or  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  dollars  per  year. 
These  payments  continue  until  each  "share"  has, 
through  the  profits  of  the  society,  acquired  a  value  of 
two  hundred  dollars.  "When  this  occurs,  the  shares  are 
regarded  as  having  matured.  Since  the  average 
profits  of  such  societies  when  well  conducted  are 
about  eight  per  cent,  per  year,  it  usually  takes  about 
eleven  and  one  half  years  for  such  shares  to  mature. 
It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  B  has  paid,  for  his  original 
loan  of  twenty-four  hundred  dollars,  the  sum  of 
thirty-three  hundred  and  twelve  dollars;  but  having 
had  eleven  and  one  half  years  in  which  to  pay  it,  he 
has  felt  no  more  burdened  than  if  he  had  paid  rent 
during  that  time,  and  at  the  end  of  the  period  the 
house  is  his  own.  Many  hundreds  of  house  owners 
have  become  such  through  the  operation  of  the  bene- 
ficial societies,  which  are  purely  mutual  in  their 
method  of  operation,  and  when  carefully  conducted 
have  shown  an  exceedingly  small  percentage  of  loss. 
One  word  of  caution  seems  advisable.  Contrary 
to  the  operation  of  the  general  laws  which  apply 
to  mercantile  corporations,  those  building  and  loan 
associations  are  most  secure  which  are  limited  in 
their  scope  by  being  purely  local  in  their  organization 


258  THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME 

and  field  of  operations.  This  is  becaiise  the  real 
estate  field  in  which  they  operate  is  well  known  to 
the  officers  of  the  society;  and  with  the  character 
and  prospects  of  those  applying  for  shares  they  are 
equally  well  acquainted. 
The  house  But  whether  one  buys  or  rents,  every  effort  should 

famuy  be  made  to  the  end  that  the  house,  in  its  variable 

factors,  conforms  as  closely  as  possible  to  one's  ideals 
and  habits  of  life.  A  house  is  something  more  than 
walls  and  roof;  windows  and  doors;  floors  and  ceil- 
ings. There  is  position,  or  site ;  interior  arrange- 
ment, or  plan;  there  are  questions  of  the  materials 
of  which  it  is  built,  of  neighborhood ;  of  accessibility, 
or  rental  and  cost  of  maintenance,  and  kindred 
others.  These  require  careful  and  intelligent  con- 
sideration; and  the  following  chapters  deal  specific- 
ally with  such,  in  order  that  the  renter  or  purchaser 
may  secure  from  the  field  of  competition  between  the 
real  estate  operators  the  best  advantages  which  his 
means  can  secure.  But  bargaining  in  this  field  inures 
to  the  buyer's  advantage  in  exact  proportion  to  his 
acquaintance  with  the  elements  of  value  in  the  trans- 
action. 

There  is  always,  therefore,  some  choice  for  the 
renter  as  to  neighborhood;  some  preference  to  be 
exercised  on  sanitary  grounds;  some  balancing  of 
advantages,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  of  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  two  otherwise  equally  available  houses. 
If  the  plan  of  the  house  be  found  in  some  details 
unsuitable,  it  may  often  be  mitigated  and  improved 
wholly  or  partially  with  the  landlord's  co-operation, 
especially  if  the  house  be  taken  on  long  lease.  Colors 
on  the  walls  and  of  fabrics  for  the  hangings  may 
be  selected  at  will,  and  the  furniture  gradually,  if 
not  immediately,  be  brought  into  some  sort  of  har- 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME  259 

mony  with  one 's  ideas  of  suitability  and  comfort.  So 
that  even  about  a  rented  house  there  may  be  created 
by  intelligent  effort  some  atmosphere  and  sentiment 
of  home,  even  though  the  exterior  be  preposterous  or 
ugly,  or  the  plan  in  minor  respects  absurd. 

It  is  especially  unfortunate  that  the  vast  majority 
of  rentable  houses  have  been  "built  for  the  market," 
and  built,  too — one  cannot  say  designed — by  men 
whose  temperament  and  previous  habits  of  life  unfit 
them  for  a  comprehension  of  the  point  of  view  of 
refined  and  discriminating  tenants  of  limited  means. 
At  no  more  expense  such  houses  could  have  been 
made  a^eeable  and  comfortable  instead  of  inade- 
quate and  absurd.  But  of  this,  more  in  detail  in 
another  chapter. 

The  poor  man  may  console  himself  that  the  larger  The  rich 
houses  of  the  rich  are  a  severe  burden  from  an  troubles 
administrative  point  of  view.  One  very  rich  man 
has  recently  incorporated  his  house,  thereby  placing 
its  complex  administration  on  an  exact,  stable,  and 
impersonal  commercial  basis.  Another,  recently 
deceased,  closed  his  really  magnificent  house  in  the 
suburbs  of  a  large  city  and  took  rooms  for  himself 
and  his  wife — his  children  were  all  married  and  scat- 
tered— in  a  by  no  means  commodious  apartment 
house  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  His  response  to  the 
openly  expressed  surprise  of  his  less  experienced 
friends  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  domestic  bur- 
dens of  the  rich.  He  said,  "I  am  tired  of  keeping 
a  negro  hotel."  His  large  staff  of  house  servants 
were  all  colored,  and  the  disproportion  between 
the  troublesome  detail  of  their  maintenance  and  that 
of  himself  and  his  wife  had  finally  struck  him  as 
ridiculous  and  further  unendurable. 

Home  life  cannot,  obviously,  be  developed  in  a 


260  THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME 

rented  apartment  house,  still  less  in  a  hotel,  as  a 
recent  notable  and  pathetic  case  has  illustrated,  and 
as  for  the  homeless  rich  of  the  newer  type,  whose 
domestic  troubles  are  becoming  a  public  scandal, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  disintegration  of 
family  life,  which  afflicts  and  characterizes  them  as 
a  class,  is  as  largely  due  to  the  impossibility  for  them 
of  home  life,  under  the  exactions  of  modern  fashion- 
able society,  as  to  any  one  other  single  cause. 

Some  mitigation  of  the  disadvantages  of  life  in 
an  apartment  has  been  brought  about  in  New  York, 
where  it  is  now  possible  to  purchase  single  apart- 
ments. This  scheme  has  been  devised  as  a  com- 
promise between  the  rented  apartment  and  the  subur- 
ban home,  since  physical  conditions  in  New  York 
make  house  ownership  increasingly  difficult,  even  for 
people  of  relatively  comfortable  income. 
Buy    _  There  is  a  fundamental  rule  to  which  strict  atten- 

tion should  be  paid  in  every  step  connected  with  the 
development  of  the  home.  By  so  doing  not  only  will 
satisfaction  be  produced  in  all  that  relates  to  utility 
and  economy,  but  it  will  also  have  another  most 
agreeable  result,  and  that  is  that  the  home  which 
develops  under  such  conditions  will  bear  the  unmis- 
takable impress  of  the  owner's  individuality.  For 
men  of  moderate  means,  who  may  feel  warranted 
in  the  expense  of  building  a  house,  attention  must 
of  course,  be  paid  to  the  commercial  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. That  is  to  say,  to  the  possible  necessity  of,  at 
some  time  in  the  future,  disposing  of  the  property 
without  too  much,  if  any,  financial  sacrifice.  If  the  site 
of  the  house  has  been  judiciously  selected,  the  house  it- 
self honestly  built  of  sound  materials  rather  than  for 
the  purpose  of  superficial  display,  the  value  of  such  a 
house    property    should     continually,    even    though 


carefully 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME  261 

slowly,  increase;  but  in  developing  the  principle  of 
individualism  as  applied  to  houses  one  must  be  care- 
ful to  keep  the  commercial  aspect  of  the  case  care- 
fully in  mind.  For  while  a  man  of  ample  means 
would  be  entirely  justified  in  proceeding  to  any 
extreme  in  departure  from  commonly  accepted  prece- 
dent in  the  arrangement  or  decoration  of  his  home, 
those  less  fortunately  situated  must  be  cautious  not 
to  carry  this  so  far  that  the  house  will  not  appeal 
to  any  one  else.  Much  difficulty  might  be  encoun- 
tered in  its  sale  or  rental  should  this  ever  be  neces- 
sary. Yet  it  is  entirely  possible,  within  the  limits 
set  by  average  demand,  to  give  every  house  such  a 
degree  of  distinction,  individuality,  and  refinement, 
as  would  instantly  appeal  to  inquiring  tenants  or 
purchasers.  In  this  way  houses  would  possess  a  real 
charm  which  would  markedly  enhance  their  market 
value. 

The  ■WTiter  was  invited  not  long  ago,  while  about  individuality 
to  start  out  for  a  walk  in  the  country,  to  inspect  a 
friend's  house  then  nearing  completion  and  almost 
ready  for  occupancy.  The  locality  was  an  unfamiliar 
one  and  the  exterior  of  the  house,  so  far  as  its  type 
was  concerned,  was  one  to  be  met  with  pretty  gener- 
ally. On  reaching  the  indicated  place  three  or  four 
houses  in  about  the  same  advanced  stage  of  comple- 
tion were  found  and  it  seemed  for  a  moment  as  if 
there  might  be  some  difficulty  in  determining  just 
which  house  was  the  object  of  the  search.  In  walk- 
ing by  the  new  houses,  however,  one  attracted  instant 
attention  because  it  showed  even  on  casual  examina- 
tion, certain  fine  qualities  related  rather  to  delicacy 
of  detail  and  careful  study  of  proportions  than  to 
distinction  of  type.  This  made  it  absolutely  certain 
that  the  house  showing  these  qualities  was  the  one 


262  THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME 

sought  for  because  they  were  qualities  which  distin- 
guished the  man  for  whom  the  house  was  built. 
Subsequently  it  appeared  that  the  correct  house  had 
been  picked  out.  It  ought  to  give  the  highest  degree 
of  satisfaction  to  every  house  owner  that  his  char- 
acter and  taste  are  very  visibly  expressed  even  in 
the  exterior  of  his  dwelling  place.  The  house 
referred  to  above  was  a  small  one  and  inexpensive, — 
but  its  characteristics  were  unmistakable. 
Look  for  There  is  one    principle    related    to    the    subject 

con  V  ciUBuCOf 

not  size  matter  of  this  chapter  which  is  so  fundamental  in  its 

character  that  it  is  necessary  to  call  the  reader's 
attention  to  it  at  the  outset  of  his  study  of  the  entire 
problem.  From  every  point  of  view  it  will  always 
be  found  far  more  satisfactory  to  bend  all  one's 
efforts  towards  securing  a  smaller  but  well  equipped 
and  conveniently  arranged  house  rather  than  one 
which,  though  larger  in  its  accommodation  is  but 
meager  in  its  appointments.  The  family  will  derive 
much  satisfaction  from  a  house,  even  though  its  plan 
may  necessitate  some  slight  crowding,  if  it  contain 
all  of  the  essential  conveniences  of  a  larger  house, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  these  be  lacking,  no 
amount  of  mere  floor  space  can  compensate  for  the 
many  irritations  which  will  hourly  arise  when  the 
house  lacks  its  proper  equipment. 

The  fault  of  most  small  houses  is  that  they  ape 
the  plan  arrangement  of  the  large  house  when  every 
consideration  of  economy  makes  it  impossible  to  use 
such  a  plan  in  the  way  that  the  large  house  implies. 
Small  houses  have,  or  should  have,  characteristic 
plans  of  their  own.  Small  drafty  halls,  for  example, 
with  a  travesty  of  a  fireplace,  are  absurd;  but  if 
there  be  a  few  large  rooms,  each  of  which  has  a 
distinct  use,    from   every  point   of   view,   they   will 


THE  HOUSE  AS  A  HOME  263 

afford  greater  satisfaction  than  will  a  greater  num- 
ber of  smaller  rooms,  the  distinction  between  which, 
is  purely  artificial  and  not  justified  by  the  actual 
social  habits  of  the  family  occupying  the  small  house. 

If  the  occupants  of  small  modem  houses  would 
face  the  real  facts  of  existence  and  determine  to  so 
build  or  rearrange  them  as  to  meet  those  facts,  the 
whole  problem  would  be  solved  and  the  caution  just 
given  would  be  unnecessary.  But  tradition  is  so 
powerful,  that  nine  men  out  of  ten  will  "go  along" 
and  wonder  why  the  house  is  so  uncomfortable. 

All  of  the  problems  connected  with  the  building 
and  the  use  of  a  house  would  be  properly  solved,  if 
we  always  made  it  a  fixed  rule  to  first  determine 
frankly  and  accurately  what  particular  need  has  to 
be  met,  and  then  meet  it  with  equal  frankness.  One 
should,  however,  always  make  sure,  before  a  final 
decision  is  reached,  that  every  side  of  the  problem  has 
been  considered. 

In  a  word — sincerity  of  purpose  throughout  the 
entire  problem,  not  only  in  planning  but  in  construc- 
tion and  decoration  as  well,  is  the  key  to  success. 
Proceeding  in  any  other  direction  will  result  in  dis- 
satisfaction or  even  actual  disaster. 


XXX 

WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE  ?* 

CHARLES  FRANCIS  OSBORNE 

I  HERE  the  wage  earner  or  salaried  man  may 
live  will  always  be  largely  determined  by 
local  and  often  accidental  circumstances,  and 
freedom  of  choice  in  this  matter  vnll  vary 
directly  with  the  ratio  of  excess  of  receipts  over 
expenditures.  For  the  city  worker,  when  any  choice 
can  be  exercised,  the  question  whether  he  may  occupy 
an  urban  or  a  suburban  home  will  usually  be 
answered  on  the  ground  of  individual  preference.  If 
the  latter  choice  is  made,  there  are  sure  to  be  half 
a  dozen  suburban  towns,  widely  separated  from  each 
other  and  offering  very  diverse  attractions,  yet  in 
equal  relation  as  to  time  and  cost  of  transportation 
to  the  office.  The  certainty  of  congenial  social  sur- 
roundings; some  aspect  of  rural  life  especially 
appealing  to  the  individual  taste;  possibly  even  the 
relatively  greater  convenience  of  one  terminal  station 
over  another  or  the  relative  frequency  of  suburban 
train  service — on  some  such  ground  the  choice  is 
usually  made.  Yet  with  these  more  or  less  senti- 
mental considerations  we  are  not  wholly  concerned. 
It  is  rather  the  question  of  "site"  in  its  technical, 
restricted,  and  physical  sense  that  occupies  us. 
^^®  In  considering  the  site  of  a  suburban  house  the 

following    points    which     affect    residential    values 
should  be  given  the  most  careful  attention : 

*From    "The   Family  Home,"    by   permission   of  the  Penn   Pub- 
lishing Co. 

264 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE?  2G5 

1.  Transportation  facilities  between  the  district 
in  which  the  proposed  house  is  situated  and  the  office. 

2.  Relation  of  the  house  itself  to  the  railway 
station  or  trolley  lines. 

3.  General  character  of  the  neighborhood  in 
which  the  house  is  situated,  and  the  general  relation 
of  this  to  the  nearest  manufacturing  district,  if  any. 

4.  Character  of  the  traffic  on  railway  and  trolley 
lines,  if  near  by. 

5.  Condition  of  the  street  or  highway  on  which 
the  home  is  located. 

6.  Physical  condition  of  the  lot  on  which  the 
house  is  built ;  noting  also  that  of  adjoining  lots. 

Forty-five  minutes  from  the  house  to  the  office  g5fm  work 
is  the  extremest  limit  to  which  the  suburban  com- 
muter can  afford  to  stretch  the  daily  tax  upon  his 
time  and  physical  energy,  so  far  as  the  transportation 
question  is  concerned.  Thirty  minutes  is  far  more 
reasonable,  and  should  be  regarded  as  the  allowable 
mean.  Only  exceptional  advantages  of  a  compen- 
sating nature  should  induce  him  to  exceed  it.  Some 
distinction  may  indeed  be  made  in  favor  of  com- 
fortable and  wholesome  transportation  in  a  suburban 
steam  or  electric  train  of  clean  cars  and  ample  train 
capacity  as  against  the  crowded,  dirty  and  ill-venti- 
lated cars  of  the  usual  type  of  urban  trolley  service. 
Porty  minutes  in  the  former  \sdll  be  far  less  fatiguing 
as  a  daily  experience  than  half  that  time  spent  in  the 
latter,  with  the  added  safeguard  from  exposure  to 
contagious  disease  to  which  every  rider  in  the  urban 
car  is  constantly  subjected.  Yet,  forty-five  minutes 
between  the  house  and  the  office  diminishes  the  avail- 
able time  for  rest  and  recreation  at  home  which, 
under  modern  business  conditions,  is  being  constantly 
reduced  below  what  must  be  regarded  as  safe  limits. 


266  WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE? 

Frequently  there  will  be  some  choice  of  transporta- 
tion service  to  town,  and  the  relative  merits  of  these 
and  their  several  relations  to  any  house  under  con- 
sideration should  not  be  overlooked. 
Tbe  The  facilities  of  netting  easily  and  quickly  from 

transportation       ,,       ,  ,         ,  .  ,  ,  .     ^  ,,         • 

problem  the  house  to  the  point  where  the  tram  or  trolley  is 

taken  is  important.  The  trip  to  and  fro  will  be 
made  twice  daily  for  every  working  day  in  the  year 
and  under  all  possible  conditions  of  weather.  "What 
may  seem,  with  reference  to  a  single  trip,  some  minor 
advantage  of  sheltered  walk,  or  slightly  lessened 
distance,  becomes  of  much  importance  when  the 
year's  journeys  are  taken  into  account.  Even  a 
short  walk  along  a  bleak  highway  exposed  to  the  full 
sweep  of  the  winter's  gale  or  the  hottest  downpour 
of  the  mid-summer  sun,  becomes  justly  magnified 
into  a  serious  fault  in  its  relation  to  some  otherwise 
desirable  house.  If  there  are  children  in  the  family, 
their  walks  to  and  from  school  must  also  enter  into 
the  problem. 

As  between  houses  at  differing  distances  from, 
town  there  is  not  only  to  be  considered  the  relative 
difference  in  the  cost  of  transportation,  but  also  the 
fact  that  the  seating  capacity  of  suburban  trolley 
service  is  not  always  carefully  estimated  for  the 
nearer  residential  districts,  and  the  further  out  one 
lives  the  more  certainty  there  is  of  always  getting  a 
comfortable  seat  into  town  in  the  morning,  and  for 
most  of  the  distance  out  in  the  evening.  As  between 
different  suburban  districts,  consideration  should  be 
given  to  the  relative  records  of  the  several  trans- 
portation companies  for  keeping  their  lines  open  in 
winter  storms,  or  regularity  of  service  at  all  times 
of  the  year,  and,  of  course,  as  to  convenient  hours 
of  service. 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE?  267 

In  determining  the  ayailability  of  any  house  Neighborhood 
under  consideration,  the  general  character  of  the 
neighborhood  would  be  justly  regarded  of  the  first 
importance.  This  is  easily  determined  by  inspection, 
and  well  kept  groimds  and  houses,  however  modest 
in  scale,  and  well  kept  streets,  should  be  deemed  an 
indispensable  accompaniment  of  the  new  home.  One 
must  not  forget,  though,  that  these  very  desirable 
accompaniments  may,  and  often  do,  mean  that  the 
neighborhood  is  a  grooving  one.  This  is  most  cer- 
tainly indicated  by  any  unusual  number  of  new 
houses  going  up,  and  new  streets  being  laid  out. 
The  disadvantage  of  this  state  of  affairs  is  that  rents 
are  certain  to  rise  year  by  year,  and  such  a  locality, 
however  charming,  is  a  better  place  to  buy  or  build 
in  than  to  rent  in.  But  the  availability  of  any  resi- 
dential neighborhood  is  not  finally  determined  by  its 
immediate  surroundings.  Some  other  neighborhood, 
seemingly  remote,  may,  under  certain  conditions  (of 
weather,  for  example)  be  brought  into  an  immediate 
and  very  detrimental  relation  to  an  otherwise  seem- 
ingly desirable  part  of  the  town.  Manufacturing 
establishments,  even  at  some  little  distance,  may, 
under  certain  conditions  of  wind  or  temperature, 
overwhelm  the  residential  quarter  of  the  district  with 
soot  laden  smoke,  noxious  and  ill  smelling  fumes,  or 
even  the  noise  of  their  operations — especially  if  night 
shifts  are  working.  Detrimental  elements  of  this 
nature  can  only  be  certainly  determined  by  repeated 
inspection  of  the  property  under  consideration  at 
various  times  of  the  day,  days  of  the  week,  or  states 
of  the  weather.  Such  a  minute  examination  is  not 
alwa%^  possible.  One  must  depend  on  the  testimony 
of  former  occupants  of  the  house  if  available,  or  of 
actual    residence ;    these    latter,    being    anxious    to 


268  WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE? 

dispose  of  their  property,  will  probably  try  to  evade 
direct  answers  to  awkward  questions.  One  of  the 
most  significant  indications  is  the  display  of  an 
unusual  number  of  "to  rent"  or  "for  sale"  signs 
on  the  houses  in  any  residential  neighborhood.  It  is 
usually  an  unfailing  indication  of  some  change  of 
character  in  the  neighborhood,  impending  or  accom- 
plished, which  makes  the  inhabitants  anxious  to  get 
away. 
Neighbors,  Then  as  to  the  character  of  the  traffic  on  nearby 

noise^aad  railway  or  trolley  lines.  In  one  or  two  cases  which 
have  come  under  the  author's  observation,  an  other- 
wise attractive  residential  neighborhood  has  been 
rendered  quite  undesirable  by  the  presence  of  noisy 
and  even  seriously  disorderly  crowds  of  excursionists 
returning  late  at  night  and  on  Sundays  from  a  park 
or  outdoor  resort  of  the  cheaper  class  at  some  little 
distance  further  out  the  line.  Such  people  will 
straggle  along  the  road  in  front  of  the  house  on  foot, 
or  go  by  with  loud  shouts  on  bicycles,  or  on  the  trolley 
ears.  The  entire  neighborhood  is  sure  to  be  dis- 
turbed by  the  disgraceful  conduct  of  these  disorderly 
classes  until  late  at  night.  This  detrimental  element 
is  much  more  serious  than  might  be  imagined  by 
those  who  have  never  undergone  the  experience,  and 
is  sufficient  to  absolutely  exclude  any  property  sub- 
ject to  the  annoyance  from  further  consideration. 
On  railway  lines  such  conduct  would  not  of  course  be 
tolerated,  but  these  may  still  be  the  source  of  a  se- 
rious annoyance  of  quite  another  character.  Railway 
freight  is,  so  far  as  possible,  run  at  night  while  the 
lines  are  relatively  clear  from  passenger  traffic.  This 
in  itself  is  not  a  source  of  serious  annoyance,  except 
on  those  roads  where  skillful  and  efficient  methods 
of  management  have  not  developed,  and  where  the 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE1  269 

shrill  whistle  of  the  freight  engine  seems  an  indis- 
pensable accompaniment  of  every  movement.  In 
certain  stages  of  the  wind,  especially  of  the  moisture 
laden  southerly  and  easterly  winds,  this  incessant 
whistling  may  cause  annoyance  at  considerable  dis- 
tances from  its  point  of  origin.  If  the  house  is  near 
busy  railway  lines  much  discomfort  may  also  be 
caused  by  clouds  of  smoke,  in  which  most  roads  still 
waste  an  appreciable  amount  of  their  fuel  expendi- 
tures. The  greasy  soot  from  this  smoke  will  not  only 
pervade  the  house  indoors,  but  will  spread  a  percep- 
tible pall  over  lawn  and  garden,  dimming  the  colors  of 
the  flowers,  distinctly  lowering  the  vitality  of  all 
forms  of  vegetation,  and  rendering  that  form  of  rural 
relaxation  known  as  "sitting  on  the  grass"  quite  out 
of  the  question.  Where  an  all  night  service  on  a 
single  trolley  track  is  maintained,  it  is  a  distinct 
disadvantage  to  have  a  passing  point  or  switch  in 
front  of  one's  house.     Such  places  are  always  noisy. 

The  physical  condition  of  the  street  or  highway  what  sort 
of  whatever  kind  that  lies  in  front  of  the  house  is  of  °^  *  street? 
importance  as  an  element  of  value.  It  should  be 
paved  as  to  its  sidewalks,  if  it  have  any,  or  be  at 
least  macadamized  if  a  simple  country  road.  If  it 
be  the  latter,  and  especially  if  it  be  a  convenient  line 
of  communication  between  important  towns,  it  is 
likely  to  be  extensively  used  by  motor  cars.  In  this 
case  it  should  be  treated  with  tarvia,  terracoleo,  or 
some  other  of  the  asphaltum  compounds  to  make  it 
dust  proof.  Otherwise,  the  garden  and  the  house 
will  be  enveloped  in  clouds  of  dust  all  day  long 
during  dry  weather.  An  unpaved  country  road 
which  may  look  exceedingly  attractive  in  fine  weather 
will,  unless  of  sandy  soil,  become  little  better  than 
a  morass  in  wet  weather,  both  in  summer  and  winter. 

Vol.   1 — 18 


270  WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE1 

On  such  a  road,  the  daily  journeys  to  and  from  the 
station,  or  for  the  children  going  and  coming  from 
school,  become  in  the  highest  degree  vexatious. 

It  might  be  well,  too,  to  make  sure  that  the  high- 
way in  front  of  the  house  is  not  a  portion  of  a  traffic 
route  between  a  stone  quarry,  brick  yard,  or  other 
similar  busy  place,  whose  products  must  be  hauled 
daily  and  continuously  to  a  market;  clouds  of  dust 
in  dry  weather,  deep  ruts  in  wet,  and  incessant  noise 
and  clamor  will  be  attendant  elements  of  discomfort. 
Tte  lot  Turning  our  attention  finally  to  the  lot  itself,  upon 

which  the  house  is  built,  the  following  points  should 
be  carefully  considered.  Is  it  lower  than  the  high- 
way or  the  adjoining  lots?  This  has  reference  not 
only  to  the  certainty  of  washing  upon  the  lot  in  heavy 
rain  storms  from  surrounding  properties,  but  to  the 
fact  that  a  relatively  low  level  is  an  indication  of 
possible  underground  streams  which  may  dampen  or 
even  overflow  the  cellar  during  the  winter  and  spring. 
The  washing  of  surface  soil  from  adjoining  lots  will 
often  seriously  interfere  with  the  garden  arrange- 
ments and  is  always  difficult  to  deal  with.  During 
the  spring  thaws,  too,  and  in  heavy  rain  storms, 
puddles  will  form  on  the  lot  in  the  most  inconvenient 
places,  and  the  paths  may  be  kept  in  a  well  nigh 
impassable  condition.  Therefore,  no  matter  how 
attractive  the  lot  may  look  during  fine  weather,  avoid 
it  if  its  general  grade  is  below  its  neighbors.  The 
condition  of  the  fences  or  other  physical  boundaries 
of  the  lot  should  receive  attention,  and  the  owner 
required  to  put  them  in  good  order.  The  walks  and 
paths,  both  front  and  rear,  should  be  reviewed  for 
similar  treatment,  if  necessary.  If  any  choice  is 
offered  between  lots  of  larger  and  smaller  size,  the 
larger  should  be  chosen  if  the  labor  of  keeping  it 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE?  271 

in  order  will  not  prove  too  burdensome  either  on 
person  or  purse.  The  larger  lot  gives  freer  and  more 
abundant  air  and  sunshine  about  the  house,  and  less 
obtrusive  neighbors,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  country  "yards"  require  more  attention,  rela- 
tively, than  do  those  in  the  city;  and  this  is  because 
more  must  be  attempted  in  the  way  of  ornamental 
gardening  in  the  country  than  is  required  in  the  city, 
if  the  house  is  to  look  as  though  it  belonged  to  its 
surroundings.  The  general  question  of  the  garden 
will  be  dealt  with  in  another  chapter. 

Residential  districts  which,  as  a  whole,  are  rela- 
tively low  lying,  are  less  agreeable  and  healthful  than 
those  occupying  higher  ground.  They  are  hotter  in 
summer,  though  perhaps  less  bleak  in  winter,  but  are 
sure  to  be  damp  at  all  times  of  the  year.  Sites  in 
valleys  are  sometimes  cool  on  summer  nights,  owing 
to  the  prevalence  in  many  such  localities  of  a  night 
downdraught  of  air  flowing  from  the  hillsides  to  the 
valley  bottom.  This  is  especially  likely  to  be  the  case 
if  there  be  a  river  or  lake  in  the  valley.  Houses  on 
or  near  hilltops  are  not  to  be  recommended  as  winter 
residences  on  account  of  their  excessive  exposure 
but,  if  well  shaded,  they  will  be  cooler  in  summer, 
spring,  and  fall,  than  lower  lying  sites,  especially 
after  sundown.  If  lying  part  way  up  a  hillside 
slope,  care  must  be  taken  to  see  that  the  property 
does  not  include  wet  or  swampy  places,  due  to  out- 
croppings  of  impervious  strata.  These  may  take 
place  at  the  surface,  or  worse  still,  against  a  cellar 
wall  below  grade,  where  the  outflow  of  water  cannot 
be  adequately  dealt  with  except  at  a  very  consider- 
able expense.  Every  one  who  knows  his  countryside 
is  familiar  with  these  hillside  swamps  and  springs. 

Sites  for  houses  in  the  city  are  subject  to  more 


272  WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE? 

limited  consideration  from  our  present  point  of  view. 
So  far  as  the  points  bearing  on  the  value  of  rural 
sites  have  application,  they  are  of  equal  force  in  the 
urban  districts;  but  few  of  them  are  applicable, 
owing  to  the  physical  restrictions  of  city  sites. 
Aside  from  the  more  sentimental  considerations 
which  affect  site  values  in  the  city,  the  chief  elements 
of  value  are  mainly  determined  on  purely  sanitary 
grounds.  Perhaps  the  most  important  element  is  the 
following:  Vital  statistics  in  New  York  indicate 
(what  might  have  been  expected  on  theoretical 
grounds)  that  houses  on  the  north  side  of  east-west 
streets  are  more  healthful  than  those  on  the  south 
side;  that  north-south  streets,  taken  as  a  class,  report 
fewer  cases  of  sickness  than  those  on  east-west 
streets;  and  that  houses  near  street  corners  show  a 
better  health  record  than  those  occupying  the  middle 
of  the  block.  In  spite  of  these  facts  houses  on  one 
side  of  the  street  often  find  takers  as  easily  as  those 
on  the  other,  though  this  should  not  be  the  case. 
Town  or  With  regard  to  the  general  question  of  '  *  town,  or 

county  ^.o^^^J.y^"  (including  in  the  latter  term  the  less 
crowded  suburban  districts)  it  may  be  said  in  con- 
clusion that  the  determination  as  to  which  presents 
the  greater  advantage,  is,  in  its  last  analysis,  largely 
one  of  individual  taste  and  temperament.  In  resi- 
dential country  districts,  such  as  are  usually  possible 
for  the  city  worker,  we  are  likely  to  find,  in  common 
with  the  city,  paved  and  lighted  streets,  good  water, 
gas  or  electric  lighting  for  the  house,  and  often  both. 
As  compared  with  town,  we  have  purer  air,  larger 
yards,  with  the  possibility  of  an  ornamental  flower 
garden,  or  even  of  a  kitchen  garden  if  one  be  so 
inclined ;  freedom  from  city  noise ;  and  readier  access 
to  the  purely  rural  districts  for  outdoor  recreation. 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE?  273 

In  addition  to  this,  if  suburban  transportation  be 
properly  developed  we  are  no  further  away  from  the 
office,  in  point  of  time,  with  more  comfortable  service. 
On  the  other  hand,  though  rents  are  lower  in  the 
country,  food  and  fuel  are  usually  somewhat  higher, 
with  the  local  markets  more  restricted  both  in  scope 
and  capacity.  Much  must  be  bought  in  town  and 
some  of  the  purchases  "'personally  conducted"  to 
the  home.  Schools  for  the  children  are  apt  to  be  less 
satisfactory  in  the  country  and  will  be  certainly  less 
easy  of  access.  Town  amusements  are  only  attain- 
able at  the  sacrifice  of  much  time  and  patience. 
Society  is  more  restricted  in  its  scope,  though  less 
formal  in  its  requirements.  Church  going  and  get- 
ting about  generally  in  the  country  are  difficult  at 
times,  unless  one  has  some  sort  of  conveyance.  Taxes 
are  lower  in  the  country,  but  one  has  less  adequate 
protection  to  person  and  property — a  condition  fre- 
quently giving  rise  to  a  good  deal  of  justifiable 
anxiety.  In  stormy  weather,  especially  in  winter, 
every  member  of  the  family  is  more  restricted  in 
outdoor  movement,  and  the  question  of  exposure  be- 
comes, especially  for  the  less  robust  and  for  the 
children,  one  of  serious  concern.  Medical  attendance 
is  often  quite  as  good  in  the  country,  but  less 
quickly  available.  The  servant  question  is  more  acute 
in  the  country,  and  is  almost  certain  to  be  a  source 
of  continual  vexation.  For  the  business  man  himself 
"the  country"  means  little  more  than  "catching 
trains,"  and  he  really  sees  little  of  it  except  on  Sun- 
days and  holidays. 

As  to  the  general  question  of  the  relative  health- 
fulness  of  town  and  country  for  the  city  worker,  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  countryside,  taking  all  things  into 
consideration,  really  presents  any  marked  advantage 
over  the  city. 


274  WHERE  SHALL  THE  HOUSE  BE? 

advantages  ^^  wliich  Side  lies  the  moral  advantage  seems  to 

the  writer  also  a  debatable  question.  For  the 
younger  children,  country  up-bringing  is  perhaps 
more  wholesome,  but  as  they  grow  older  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  such  a  conclusion  is  warranted.  Rural 
simplicity  and  innocence  are  largely  a  product  of  the 
imagination  of  those  who  only  know  the  countryside 
in  its  superficial  aspects  as  summer  visitors.  Oppor- 
tunity for  the  viciously  disposed  is,  in  one  form  or 
another,  ready  to  hand  in  either  environment,  and 
the  trend  of  the  thought  of  the  younger  set  among 
the  country  bred  is,  so  far  as  the  writer's  observation 
serves,  less  wholesome  and  broadening  than  among 
similar  people  in  the  city.  It  is  certain  that  for  those 
accustomed  to  the  city's  ways  since  early  childhood, 
there  is  far  greater  poise  and  stability  of  character 
when  exposed  to  the  opportunity  of  going  wrong, 
since  they  have  continually  been  so  since  they  began 
to  observe  for  themselves. 

There  is  no  swifter  descent  than  that  of  young 
men  who  are  easily  thrown  off  their  moral  balance 
by  the  wholly  false  glamour  of  the  city's  temptations 
when  suddenly  exposed  to  them ;  while  those  who  are 
city  bred  have  long  since  learned  to  estimate  such 
things  as  they  really  are.  Nevertheless,  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  countryside  will  prove  irresistible  to  many 
discriminating  men  and  women,  and  their  response  to 
such  i.  nil  can  after  all  only  be  regarded  as  the  sign 
of  a  who.  some  nature.  There  are  undeniable  rural 
attractions,  and  if  one  adopts  the  proper  attitude 
toward  country  life,  taking  it  for  what  it  is  and 
striving  to  understand  it  and  get  the  best  out  of  it, 
by  resisting  its  narrowing  tendencies,  perhaps  no  one 
is  justified  in  saying  that,  for  this  or  that  individual 
or  family,  life  in  the  city  is  preferable  to  life  in  the 
country. 


XXXI 

WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE  ? 

MARY  HARMON  WEEKS 
Vice-President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers 

"There  are  two  ways  of  improving  the  quality  of  human 
beings:  one  by  giving  better  heredity — starting  them  in  life 
with  a  stronger  heart,  better  digestion,  steadier  nerves;  the 
other,  by  so  combining  the  factors  of  daily  life  that  even 
a  weak  heart  may  grow  strong,  a  poor  digestion  become 
good,  frayed  nerves  gain  steadiness.  The  science  of  right 
living  has  not  yet  been  worked  out  in  all  its  details.  Never- 
theless, certain  rules  of  practice  are  so  well  established  that 
only  obstinate  or  idiotic  men  have  any  excuse  for  denying 
them.  History  teaches  the  universality  of  the  rule  that  the 
art  is  developed  long  before  the  science." — Ellen  Richards. 

''Life  does  not  develop  to  the  fullest  when  hindered  at 
every  step  by  outside  forces,  or  when  cut  otf  from  some  of 
the  supplies  most  necessary  to  its  existence."— Bertha  June 
Richardson. 

TEACHER  in  the  Lathrop  school  of  Kansas     Air  and 

scliool  TTOrk 

City  had  a  pupil  who  showed  ability  but 
who  came  to  school  listless,  was  inattentive 
in  study  and  «lass,  and  seemed  to  be  in  bad 
physical  condition.  Being  an  intelligent  woman  in- 
terested in  her  charges,  she  made  an  investigation 
into  home  conditions  before  pronouncing  him  a 
bad  boy.  She  found  that  he  was  sleeping  with  six 
grown  people  in  a  room  whose  windows  and  doors 
were  never  open.  The  mother  was  informed  in  a 
friendly  way  of  the  fact  that  her  boy's  poor  work 
at  school  was  probably   due   to   this  lack   of   fresh 

275 


276  WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE? 

air  in  his  sleeping  room.  She,  for  the  first  time 
perhaps,  realized  the  connection  between  fresh  air 
and  school  work,  and  as  "love  can  find  out  the  wav" 
contrived,  though  very  poor,  to  better  conditions  for 
her  boy.  His  health  immediately  improved.  He 
came  to  school  alert  and  active,  could  control  his 
attention,  and  master  his  work. 
Mi  and  That  IS  the  whole  story  of  pure  air,  in  a  nutshell, 

is  it  not  ?  Food,  water  and  air  are  the  three  requis- 
ites of  human  life.  Water  to  liquefy  the  blood,  food 
to  give  it  nutrition.  But  of  what  avail  are  these 
toward  producing  a  vigorous  body  and  alert  mind  if 
the  blood  is  denied  fresh  air  to  remove  the  poisons 
which  food  produce,  and  to  give  to  it  the  life-creat- 
ing, energj'-building  element,  without  which  body 
and  brain  are  encompassed  by  a  deadly  torpor,  and 
existence  is  but  a  half  life? 

The  principle  and  method  of  this  give  and  take 
between  the  blood  and  the  air  is  so  simple  and  so 
commonly  employed  in  every  household,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  realize  that  the  great  majority  of  "civil- 
ized" people  are  living  the  half  life  because  of  impure 
air.  When  we  build  the  coal  fire  in  the  morning  do 
we  shut  off  all  the  drafts,  and  cut  off  the  current  of 
air  from  our  would  be  fire?  On  the  contrary,  we 
open  wide  the  drafts  and  create  a  strong  suction  of 
air  so  that  as  much  of  the  oxygen  as  possible  can 
mingle  with  the  coal  and  make  it  "bum."  Because 
of  this  burning  di-aft,  the  disagreeable  coal  gas  which 
results  goes  up  the  chimney.  But  if  we  have  not 
arranged  matters  well,  if  we  have  too  small  a  draft, 
or  cut  it  off  before  the  coal  has  had  its  full  amount 
of  oxygen,  we  soon  have  a  very  apparent  odor  of 
this  same  gas.  If  after  supplying  our  fire  with  the 
oxygen   from  the  air   in  the  house   and  filling   the 


WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE?  277 

remaining  air  with  this  gas,  we  fail  to  supply  fresh 
free  air  from  our  ventilating  apparatus, — ventilator, 
fresh  air  duct,  doors  or  windows  or  whatever  other 
method  we  use, — a  person  entering  from  the  outer 
air,  smells  not  only  the  gas  from  the  coal  but  the  dead 
odor  of  living. 

Our  blood  and  our  breathing  apparatus  work  on 
the  same  principle.  Action,  which  is  burning,  is 
going  on  in  our  bodies  day  and  night  through  volun- 
tary and  involuntary  motion,  using  up  the  oxygen  in 
the  blood  continually  and  throwing  into  the  life 
stream  what  corresponds  to  the  coal  gas.  But  our 
drafts,  the  lungs,  not  being  left  to  our  own  volition 
for  their  action,  keep  drawing  in  air  to  their  ampli- 
fied surface  where  the  blood  can  take  up  the  needed 
oxygen  and  pour  into  the  air  now  being  thrown  out 
by  our  body  chimneys,  the  gas  of  living  which  so 
pollutes  the  air  of  audience  chambers,  that  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  said  he  always  felt,  in  such  rooms, 
that  he  was  getting  something  from  every  body. 

Since  this  process  is  going  on  all  the  time,  it  is 
extremely  important  not  only  that  all  should  breathe 
deeply  and  stronglj^  but  that  plenty  of  fresh  air, 
not  breathed  air,  should  be  provided.  Without  these 
two  essentials,  the  blood  soon  becomes  clogged  with 
poisonous  as  well  as  useless  material.  It  does  not 
have  enough  of  life  giving  oxygen,  moves  slowly  and 
furnishes  insufficient  energ;y"  to  muscles  and  brain, 
with  the  result  that  both  body  and  mind  are  but 
''half  alive." 

To  many  people,  these  seem  matters  so  well  known 
as  hardly  to  need  repetition.  But  are  they  really 
well  known?  Are  they  not  frequently  heard  but 
never  realized?  If  we  saw  some  one  giving  our 
children  spoonsful  of  a  known  poison    or    of    any 


278  WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE? 

unknown  substance,  we  should  instantly  interfere  to 
prevent.  Yet  day  after  day,  we  giv-e  our  children 
equally  as  poisonous  matter  to  breathe  in  homes, 
schools,  churches,  factories,  etc.,  in  all  of  which  we 
could  easily  remedy  conditions.  For  the  better  part 
of  six  hours  of  each  school  day  many  of  our  own 
children  live  in  air  that  comes  through  a  cold  air 
duct.  Have  we  ever  examined  the  entrance  to  that 
duct? 
Throat  and  In  her  valuable  series  of  articles  on  * '  Clean  School 

troubles  Houscs, "  which  appeared  in  the  Child  Welfare  Mag- 
azine in  1911,  Dr.  Helen  Putnam  gives  advice  which 
applies  equally  well  to  the  family  house.  She  says: 
"The  irritating  and  poisonous  particles  drawn  in 
through  the  nose  or  mouth  irritate  and  poison  the 
delicate  mucous  membrane  lining  of  nose,  throat  and 
bronchial  tubes,  causing  much  catarrhal  trouble. 
Physicians  whose  specialty  is  nose  and  throat  diseases 
look  for  many  more  cases  of  'cold  in  the  head,' 
'sore  throat'  and  bronchitis  after  wind  storms; 
chronic  catarrh  is  aggravated  in  dusty  weather. 
Adenoids  and  adenoid  conditions,  tonsilitis,  tubercu- 
losis and  some  other  germ  diseases  that  affect  the 
respiratory  passages  develop  more  easily  in  this 
catarrhal  tissue  and  their  cure  is  more  difficult. 
Autopsies  show  that  city  dwellers'  lungs,  instead  of  a 
healthy  pink,  are  more  often  a  dirty  dark  color,  like 
the  lungs  of  those  working  in  coal  mines  and  other 
dusty  occupations,  with  fibrous  thickenings  and 
nodules  where  more  or  less  inflammatory  changes 
have  taken  place,  inflammations  that  are  not  enough 
perhaps  to  always  make  people  ill  in  bed,  but  that 
lessen  vitality  and  predispose  to  disease.  This  is  one 
of  the  reasons  why  country  life,  other  things  being 
equal,  is  healthier  than  city  life,  where  fifteen  hun- 


WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE?  279 

dred  times  as  many  dust  particles  float  in  the  air  we 
breathe.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  very  high 
death  rate  from  tuberculosis  among  teachers,  and  the 
very  large  amount  of  tuberculosis,  much  of  it  latent, 
among  children,  that  increases  through  school  years, 
except  among  'open  air  school'  children.  This 
street  dust,  tracked  and  blowTi  in  from  streets  that 
can  and  should  be  cleaner,  is  an  important  part  of 
such  ill  health,  although  not  the  whole  cause. 


<  i  I 


The  cold  air  box  and  the  air  it  brings  in  is  The  cold  air 
another  problem,  quite  as  important  as  care  of  the  air  vent 
air  after  it  is  in.  There  are  cold  air  boxes  drawing 
their  supply  from  the  level  of  sidewalks  and  streets, 
and  the  pipe  of  the  passing  smoker  is  distinctly 
smelled  in  the  house ;  if  tobacco  smoke,  then,  of 
course,  dust  and  effluvia  from  passersby  is  drawn  in. 
To  be  sure  there  may  not  be  disease  germs  in  this 
air,  but  is  there  health  in  it — all  there  should  be  in 
children's  air  supply?  Sometimes  the  air  is  drawn 
in  from  alleys  where  garbage  or  other  rubbish  is  kept. 
WTien  cloth  for  sifting  the  air  is  placed  over  intakes 
it  quickly  becomes  heavy  with  a  blackish  deposit. 
When  air  is  washed  by  showers  of  water  in  certain 
systems  the  washings  make  a  muddy  stream  whose 
"mud"  might  have  gone  into  the  child's  lungs 
instead.  This  brings  us  again  to  the  cleanliness  of 
streets  and  byways  around  the  school.  How  are  they 
around  the  buildings  your  club  is  interested  in? 

"Or  it  may  be  that  the  school  yard  itself  is  at 
fault.  Does  the  outlet  for  bad  air  empty  in  the  play- 
ground? Is  it  a  muddy  yard,  or  in  any  way  not  fit 
for  children's  use,  besides  giving  them  low  ideals  of 
what  the  surroundings  of  the  place  they  live  in 
should  be?  If  so,  mothers'  clubs  can  prove  their 
value  by  putting  it  in  good  condition,  and  encour- 


280  WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE? 

aging  the  children  to  do  a  part  themselves.  It  is  not 
always  money  so  much  as  brains  that  is  needed,  and 
working  on  it  helps  arouse  interest  in  the  need  of 
larger,  much  larger  plots  of  land  around  schools. 

"Another  not  uncommon  outside  cause  of  school 
house  dirtiness  is  soft  coal  smoke,  perhaps  from  a 
factor^'  near  by,  or  from  one  in  the  direction  of  the 
prevailing  winds  that  bring  the  black  cloud  to  the 
school,  and  increase  labor  and  expense  of  keeping 
windows  and  rooms  clean;  or,  which  is  more  usual, 
they  are  not  kept  clean,  and  health  suffers — a  greater 
expense  in  the  end.  Some  such  factories  also  send  out 
injurious  gases  and  disagreeable  odors.  There  are 
methods  of  preventing  all  these  defilements  of  the  air 
we  live  in — or  die  in.  In  a  few  places  there  are  laws 
requiring  these  methods  to  be  used,  but  the  law  is 
rarely  well  enforced.  Just  as  city  fathers  allow 
saloons,  houses  of  ill  fame  and  the  evils  always  crop- 
ping out  in  their  neighborhoods  to  educate  some  chil- 
dren more  hours  in  the  year  than  do  our  schools,  so 
they  allow  dirty  streets  and  business  establishments 
to  injure  physical  health  in  the  ways  our  two  years' 
study  has  shown." 
Tear  of  Charles  Doran  says  in  the  Child  Welfare  Maga- 

zine :  ' '  The  fear  of  a  draft  and  the  precautions 
taken  to  guard  against  it  often  lead  the  mother  into 
the  grave  error  of  keeping  her  baby  in  an  overheated 
room,  in  which  the  fresh  ozone  so  necessary  to  the 
growth  and  healthfulness  of  the  child  is  debarred 
an  entrance.  The  room  is  kept  closed  lest  the  free 
access  of  air  might  cause  a  draft  and  the  child 
contract  a  cold.  The  thought  that  it  is  impure  air, 
air  allowed  to  remain  for  hours  at  a  time  instead  of 
the  fresh,  cool  and  bracing  air,  never  enters  the  heads 
of  many  young  mothers;  the  result  is  the  total  exclu- 


draftB 


WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE?  281 

sion  of  pure  air  and  the  preservation  of  the  foul 
air  in  the  room.  The  young  child,  like  the  virgin 
plant,  needs  plenty  of  pure  air  and  will  wither,  as 
the  plant  does,  without  it.  Many  a  child  today  has 
weak  lungs,  suffers  from  catarrhal  and  throat  trou- 
bles due  to  'too  much  care'  upon  the  part  of  its 
parents;  it  is  rendered  weak  by  being  prohibited 
from  having  at  the  time  it  most  needs  it  the  fresh  air, 
the  very  life  and  gro'^'th  to  the  young.  A  mother 
will  tremble  at  the  thought  of  her  child's  being 
exposed  to  the  draft,  and  yet  place  the  little 
life  in  greater  danger  by  allowing  it  to  sleep  in  a 
room  whose  atmosphere  is  laden  with  impurities  as 
the  result  of  hours  in  which  every  exit  for  the  going 
out  of  the  foul  air  and  the  entrance  of  the  fresh  air 
is  closed  up  tight.  A  child  should  never  be  allowed 
to  sleep  in  a  room  whose  windows  have  been  closed 
a  longer  period  than  three  hours,  and  not  permitted 
to  remain  where  the  air  has  been  left  unchanged  a 
longer  time  than  four  hours.  It  is  not  the  abundance 
of  fresh  air,  but  the  scarcity  of  fresh  air  that  is  to 
be  feared  for  the  child.  Too  often  the  old  belief, 
'No  air  without  some  draughts,'  prevails,  and  a 
child  is  kept  for  hours,  perhaps  even  for  days  at  a 
time,  if  the  weather  is  bad,  within  walls  where  the 
air  is  so  impure  that,  were  it  possible  to  gather  up  a 
handful  of  it,  it  would  be  found  to  contain  enough 
poisonous  matter  to  kill  a  regiment  or  disease  a  whole 
army. 

"There  is,  then,  a  wisdom  in  the  French  saying, 
*Too  much  care  kills,'  and  it  is  this  too  much  care 
to  exclude  from  the  child's  life  what  is  most  essential 
to  its  gro\vth  and  strength  that  is  responsible  for  so 
many  pale  faces,  contracted  chests  and  listless  eyes 
in  the  little  ones  we  love  so,  and  would  all  of  us  wish 


282  WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE? 

to  see  as  the  most  of  them,  yea  the  far  greater  part 
of  them,  have  an  inherent  right  to  be — rosy  cheeked, 
full  chested,  sparkling  eyed  children.  Prudence  is  a 
wise  master  to  serve,  but  how  often  do  we  really 
know  how  to  serve  him  best.  Surely,  is  not  our  pre- 
caution frequently  as  dangerous  as  lack  of  precaution 
when  good  common  sense  is  sacrificed  to  foolish  fears 
and  dreads?" 
toe^a*da^r*  ^^  ^^®  country,  there  is  little  trouble  about  get- 

«°*  ting  fresh  air.     The  question  for  the  farm  house  is 

quite  different.  As  Helen  Dodd  says,  "In  wooden 
houses,  too  much  air  is  the  fear  throughout  the 
winter.  More  air  than  we  realize  comes  through  the 
walls  of  the  house  and  around  the  windows  and 
doors,  so  that  the  farm  house  problem  is  how  to  get 
the  bad  air  out."  What  is  needed  is  circulation  and 
this  must  be  provided  by  outlets. 

The  simplest  way  is  to  open  a  window  at  the  top, 
whereas  we  usually  open  it  at  the  bottom  alone. 
Small  openings  at  both  places  are  best,  unless  you 
have  a  passion  for  pure  air  and  prefer  the  window 
sash  out.  A  board  across  either  or  both  openings, 
slanting  inward  from  its  bottom,  will  throw  the  air 
up  instead  of  across  the  room,  and  avoid  drafts. 

A  fireplace  makes  an  ideal  conductor  for  dirty 
air,  even  when  no  fire  is  going.  An  outlet  in  the 
roof  opposite  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  wind, 
if  covered  with  a  hinged  top,  will  be  extremely  useful 
in  keeping  the  air  of  the  whole  house  clean.  In 
rooms  used  for  living  and  for  cooking  there  must  be 
some  means  of  creating  a  stronger  cross  current  of 
outward  bound  air  without  any  down  draft,  and 
this  can  be  accomplished  in  a  primitive  and  inex- 
pensive way  by  either  a  transom  to  the  outer  air,  the 
movable  part  hinged  at  the  bottom,  or  by  opening  a 


WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHE?  283 

window  at  the  top.  A  window  open  at  the  bottom  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  room  will  give  sufficient  cross 
current  to  drive  out  rapidly  accumulating  unclean 
air,  and  drafts  may  be  prevented  by  using  the 
boards  tilted  in  at  the  top  edge,  across  the  openings. 
A  good  housewife  should  be  able  to  gauge  the  needed 
amount  of  opening  to  keep  the  room  livable,  and 
prevent  the  odors  of  cooking  and  living  from  reach- 
ing the  rest  of  the  house. 

We  hear  a  bit  about  the  waste  of  fuel  in  open  win- 
dows, but  experience  proves  that  clean  fresh  air 
keeps  the  body  much  warmer  at  a  lower  temperature 
than  does  dirty  air. 

Every    effort  should    be  made  to    have  windows     Tresh  air 

must  come 

slide  easily  and  stop  at  the  right  places.  Women  easuy 
have  no  time  to  fuss  over  such  things  and  men  and 
children  will  not.  As  Isaac  Roberts  says  in  "The 
Farmstead,"  "If  the  health  and  the  general  well 
being  of  the  boys  and  girls,  as  well  as  of  the  parents, 
are  worth  anything  at  all,  attend  religiously  to  these 
small  and  inexpensive  conveniences.  The  wise 
farmer  will  find  the  secret  of  getting  along  with  his 
own  household  and  of  rearing  a  strong  healthy  family 
to  lie  in  the  strict  attention  he  gives  to  just  such 
small  matters  as  these.  The  things  that  overstrain 
the  physique,  that  try  the  temper  and  patience,  must 
especially  be  looked  after  and  something  of  a  better 
nature  substituted  for  them."  Fresh  air  must  come 
easily.  "Time  and  money  spent  in  providing  good 
ventilation  will  be  well  invested,  for  every  member 
of  the  family  will  feel  an  increase  in  vigor,  comfort 
and  cheerfulness."  It  vnll  be  a  long  time  before 
every  house  will  be  so  built  that  a  tiny  fluttering  flag 
will  tell  us  at  a  glance  whether  we  are  getting  our 
quota  of  fresh  air,  but  we  should  certainly  put  in 


284  WHAT  DO  WE  BREATHED 

our  vvindows  with,  a  view  to  proper  ventilation  of  our 
sleeping  rooms,  and  even  where  w^e  have  not  con- 
trolled their  installation,  we  can  still  so  control  the 
currents  of  air  that  it  wall  be  possible  to  "sleep  out 
doors  inside,"  without  the  inconveniences  and  expo- 
sure of  open  sleeping  porches.  The  renewed  vigor,  the 
restfulness  and  the  good  appetite  which  wait  on  such 
sleeping  will  amply  repay  the  morning  shiver. 

Our  outdoor  sleeping  enthusiasts  follow  with  their 
word.  We  believe  in  their  cult  when  such  sleeping 
does  not  make  a  greater  drain  on  the  vitality,  for  the 
extra  heat  expended,  and  the  extra  burden  of  clothes 
borne,  than  is  returned  by  the  exposure  to  all  the 
winds  that  blow. 


THE     BOY     WITH     A     SWORD 

After    the    Painting    by    Edouard    Manet. 
In   the   Metropolitan    Museum   of  Art,    New  York. 


XXXII 

THE  EESTFUL  HOME 

MRS.  A.  R.  MERRELL 

5  HE  discussion  of  restfulness  in  the  home  is 
of  wide  scope,  since  there  is  a  diversity  of 
ideas  as  to  what  constitutes  a  restful  home. 
The  circumstances,  education  and  tempera- 
ment of  the  homemaker  influences  these  opinions. 
Our  Mother  Eve,  as  she  walked  about  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  so  free  from  thought  of  sewing,  housework 
and  social  duties,  knew  only  restfulness.  Our  Pur- 
itan ancestors,  who  lived  simply  and  dressed  plainly, 
had  leisure  time  to  rest  and  to  create  a  restful  home 
atmosphere.  In  these  days  of  more  complex  living 
the  problem  of  homemaking  is  more  difficult.  The 
social  and  religious  demands  of  the  day  often  require 
an  outlay  of  time  and  strength  which  the  housekeeper 
can  ill  afford  to  give.  The  ever-changing  fashions 
necessitate  much  planning  and  sewing  if  one  is  to 
dress  both  well  and  economically.  Even  the  so-called 
labor-saving  devices  are  the  more  utensils  to  clean 
and  to  care  for,  even  though  they  may  be  really 
useful  in  accomplishing  work.  The  housewife  is 
often  at  a  loss  as  to  what  to  do  first  or  when  to  find 
time  to  do  all  which  seems  to  be  her  duty. 

In  order  to  maintain  a  restful  home,  the  home- 
keeper  herself  must  be  rested.  How  can  this  condi- 
tion be  obtained  ?  By  being  careful  not  to  confound 
housekeeping  with  home-keeping,  striving  vainly  to 
make  the  former  do  duty  for  the  latter.  Simplify 
the  work  by  planning  each  day's  duties  and  pleasures 
methodically.     Gauge  the  time  and  the  task  and  see 

Vol.  1—19  285 


286  THE  RESTFUL  HOME 

how  much  can  be  accomplished.  Hold  to  the  idea 
"I  have  time  to  do  my  work,"  but  eliminate  all 
hurry  and  bustle.  "Work  is  made  for  life,  not  life 
for  work ;  and  the  greatest  work  is  always  done  with 
apparent  ease." 

Woman  must  keep  a  high  mood  and  remain  undis- 
turbed by  the  petty  happenings  of  every-day.  She 
who  gives  free  rein  to  her  nerves  brings  unrest  upon 
all  around  her.  To  quote  an  article  in  a  recent  mag- 
azine: "Only  a  spendthrift  would  sacrifice  a  serene 
mood  in  order  to  fume  over  an  ill-fitting  garment  or 
an  undelivered  parcel  or  a  smear  of  mud  in  the  hall 
or  the  buzz  of  flies  in  the  pantry.  And  yet  there 
are  women  who  fret  their  spirit  to  tatters  by  chafing 
over  these  insignificant  happenings.  Order  in  the 
house  is  important,  but  order  in  the  spirit  is  more 
important.  Cleanliness  drops  from  its  high  place  at 
the  right  hand  of  godliness,  when  it  calls  out  dis- 
turbance of  the  high  mood.  Household  thrift  sinks 
lower  than  household  waste  when  a  woman  saves  her 
carpets  by  constant  friction  over  dust,  and  her  furni- 
ture by  constant  carping  over  scratches." 

The  mother  who  leaves  her  housekeeping  and  the 
care  of  her  children  to  a  maid  while  she  does  public 
work  outside  her  home,  cannot  expect  a  restful 
atmosphere  awaiting  her  return.  The  w^oman  who 
devotes  herself  to  outside  work  and  neglects  her  home 
for  the  sake  of  such  work,  is  as  much  to  be  censured 
as  the  man  who  will  not  exert  himself  to  earn  ade- 
quate support  for  his  family.  The  duty  of  a  hus- 
band is  to  earn  a  livelihood;  the  duty  of  a  wife  is 
to  maintain  a  proper  home. 

Every  home-keeper  needs,  and  should  take  time 
for  recreation.  But  it  should  be  that  which  will  rest 
rather  than  weary,  so  that  she  may  return  to  her 
home  cares  with  renewed  vigor  and  refreshed  spirit. 


THE  RESTFUL  HOME  287 

In  order  to  make  a  restful  home,  one  should  refrain 
from  engaging  in  too  many  laborious  obligations  out- 
side the  home,  but  should  enter  into  those  which 
relax  the  strain  and  strengthen  one  for  the  duties 
which  are  one's  real  work. 

Although  the  restfulness  of  the  home  depends 
largely  upon  the  wife's  temperament  and  point  of 
view,  there  are  a  few  essentials  which  lie  outside  her 
personality.  The  rooms  of  the  house,  whether  ele- 
gant or  inexpensive,  should  be  simply  furnished. 
Such  colors  should  be  chosen  for  decoration  as  will 
soothe  rather  than  irritate  tired  nerves.  Plain  furni- 
ture and  a  few  tasteful  ornaments  are  more  pleasing 
to  the  eye  than  over-crowded  rooms.  Wallpaper  of 
bright  color  and  large  pattern  is  less  restful  than  the 
more  subdued  shades  and  designs. 

The  husband  and  children  may  do  their  share 
toward  promoting  restfulness  in  the  home  by  being 
considerate  and  orderly,  for  order  is  especially  neces- 
sary to  restfulness.  Children  not  properly  trained 
may  be  a  very  disturbing  element.  It  is  well  to 
encourage  a  child  in  sensible  conversation,  but  he 
should  also  be  taught  that  many  times  "children 
should  be  seen,  not  heard."  Disrespect  to  elders  as 
well  as  disobedience  and  lack  of  promptness  on  the 
part  of  children  will  produce  discord  in  the  best  of 
homes. 

The  problem  of  a  restful  home  is  one  which 
belongs  to  every  member  of  the  family  since  it  is 
only  by  united  effort  that  such  a  home  can  be  main- 
tained. A  gentleman  was  once  asked  to  give  his 
favorite  quotation  and  he  gave  this:  "He  who  can- 
not find  true  happiness  on  his  own  hearthstone,  will 
seek  in  vain  for  it  elsewhere."  This  was  as  fine  a 
compliment  as  he  could  pay  to  his  home  and  the 
home-keeper. 


XXXIII 
ABOUT  THE  HOUSE  MONEY 

MARY  HARMON  WEEKS 

"Poverty  need  not  exist,  for  ten  thousand  poverties  united 
form  wealth."— M.  de  Byke. 

"Misery  is  non -adjustment  due  to  a  lack  of  harmony 
between  effort  and  result.  That  many  people  regard  life 
as  a  burden  cannot  be  doubted,  but  the  state  of  mind  is  due 
to  a  misuse  of  goods,  not  to  a  lack  of  theTn." —Patten. 

"Let  your  needs  rule  you;  pamper  them;  you  will  see 
them  multiply  like  insects  in  the  sun.  The  more  you  give 
them  the  more  they  demand." —Wagner's  "The  Simple  Life." 

"The  misablest  people  I  ever  saw  was  them  that  killed 
all  their  wants  by  over-feedin'  em."— Peter  Bines  in  "The 
Spenders." 

"The  economy  of  right  use  depends  largely  upon  the 
home-maker."- Ely  and  Wicker. 

"No  one  but  a  woman  knows  the  motives,  the  plans,  the 
hopes,  which  actuate  a  woman  in  the  spending  of  all  she  has. 
Time  is  generally  spent  lavishly ;  effort  is  seldom  given  grudg- 
ingly. If  women  see  results  ahead,  they  hold  nothing  back ; 
the  hard  lessons  come  when  the  results  prove  unworthy  of 
the  time,  money  and  effort  spent."— Bertlta  June  Bichardson, 

"How  can  a  child  learn  the  use  of  money  if  she  never 
has  any  to  use  V 

"Mama,"  said  the  five-year-old  on  a  weekly  allowance 
of  five  cents,  "how  easy  five  cents  goes  when  you  break 
it!" 

288 


ABOUT  THE  HOUSE  MONEY 


289 


I S  a  matter  of  personal  happiness,  domestic  suc- 
cess and  wifely  responsibility,  perhaps  no 
other  domestic  arrangement  counts  for  more 
than  the  method  adopted  by  the  husband  for 
giving  his  wife  the  house  money.  The  vital  question 
with  him  is  how  to  secure  the  money;  to  the  house- 
hold it  is  how  the  money  is  expended.  Few  men  un- 
derstand fully  that  how  it  is  given  makes  a  great 
difference  to  the  homekeeper. 

A  household  allowance  is  a  very  comfortable 
thing  for  the  wife,  where  the  more  generous  method 
described  by  Dr.  Caniield  is  not  adopted.  A  definite 
sum  given  weekly  or  monthly  enables  the  wife  to  plan 
her  expenditures  with  certainty,  and  avoids  the 
wasteful  haphazard  housekeeping  which  naturally 
results  when  money  is  doled  out  to  the  wife  in  hap- 
hazard amounts  at  haphazard  times.  No  true- 
hearted  man  will  want  the  mother  of  his  children  to 
hang  on  his  bounty  as  if  she  were  a  mendicant.  But 
this  is  her  necessary  attitude  when  she  must  ask  for 
what  she  needs.  Even  though  the  husband  gives 
willingly,  it  is  often  not  pleasant  for  her  to  be 
obliged  to  ask,  and  if  she  has  been  a  self-supporting 
woman  before  marriage,  it  is  very  hard  for  her  to 
have  no  money  which  she  really  manages  for  herself. 
With  an  allowance,  she  is  independent  and  truly  self 
respecting,  as  every  wife  should  be.  If  she  would 
avoid  a  rock  on  which  domestic  happiness  is  often 
wrecked,  she  will  wdsely  insist  on  a  safe  agreement 
being  made  during  the  happy  days  of  courtship. 

The  wife  should  bring  to  the  home  a  knowledge 
of  business  methods  that  she  may  finance  her  house- 
keeping to  the  best  advantage,  and  do  her  part  in 
"transforming  the  family  income  into  comfort-, 
health,   pleasure   and  protection    for    the    future." 


The 

honsebold 

aUowa.nce 


Knowledge  of 

buBinees 

method! 

essential  to 

wise 

expenditure 


290  ABOUT  THE  HOUSE  MONEY 

Commissioner  Driscol  of  New  York  says  ' '  The  house- 
wife has  no  more  right  to  misuse  household  funds 
than  the  bank  president  has  to  misuse  those  of  depos- 
itors." Her  preparation  for  family  life  should 
include  a  study  of  economic  household  management. 
The  man  she  marries  is  expected  to  know  how  to 
provide  the  money,  and  people  look  askance  at  him 
if  he  does  not.  The  equal  obligation  of  knowing  how 
to  produce  adequate  results  with  it,  lies  on  the  wife. 

Before  children  come  to  complete  the  family 
circle,  the  wise  parents  will  have  formulated  a  plan 
for  teaching  them  the  right  use  of  money.  If  ways 
are  provided  by  which  they  may  earn  their  spending 
money  so  much  the  better,  since  earning  gives  a 
measure  of  value ;  but  its  value  may  be  rightly  learned 
through  spending,  and  each  child  may  well  be 
allowed  to  expend  his  little  allowance,  under  the 
advice,  but  the  not  too  dogmatic  direction,  of  his 
parents. 
Household  Tjie  question  of  keeping  accounts  should  be  settled 

early  in  the  history  of  the  family.  Accurate  class- 
ified accounts  are  a  burden  to  the  housekeeper  and 
no  others  are  of  much  use.  Half  kept  lists  of  expen- 
ditures are  a  nuisance,  a  constant  reminder  of  duty 
undone,  and  furnish  no  basis  for  regulation  of 
expenses.  But  in  the  first  years  both  husband  and 
wife  should  make  time  for  accounts  and  in  these 
years  can  learn  by  actual  experience,  business-like 
ways  of  conducting  family  expenditures,  which  will 
make  domestic  accounting  easy  for  the  busier  times 
later. 

Housekeepers  might  consider  the  keeping  of 
accounts  a  social  service  to  the  world  at  large,  as  a 
series  of  well  kept  records  of  household  expenditures 
extending  over  the  last  twenty-five  years,  would  now 


ABOUT  THE  HOUSE  MONEY  291 

be  of  great  value  in  investigations  into  the  high  cost 
of  living,  and  economic  possibilities  in  the  home. 

From  an  analysis  of  such  records,  the  housekeeper 
can  readily  see  where  she  has  expended  money  that 
counts  for  little  in  results  and  where  she  has  failed 
to  make  results  count  for  much.  To  depend  upon 
memory  for  such  information  means  half  knowledge 
in  all  directions.  How  can  one  "compare  what  she 
needs  to  spend  for  a  given  item  and  what  she  really 
does  spend  unless  she  keeps  strict  account?" 

The  running  of  a  house,  however  simply,  is  a 
complicated  matter,  and  requires  the  same  business 
methods  as  a  store,  factory,  school  system  or  any 
other  business.  That  the  American  home  is  the  most 
wasteful  sphere  of  American  life  is  generally 
admitted.  But  with  growing  knowledge  of  the  social 
duty  of  the  home,  the  increased  attention  to  the  study 
of  domestic  economy  and  the  marked  tendency  to 
recognize  the  home  as  a  legitimate  sphere  for  the 
exercise  of  all  the  business  methods  developed  in 
store  and  factory,  we  may  expect  to  see  a  decided 
change  in  the  handling  of  the  material  of  home  life. 

When  women  clearly  recognize  that  arrest  of  tJttM^*  ** 
waste,  the  use  of  by-products,  the  demand  for  honest 
measures  and  honest  supplies  means  more  value  in 
terms  of  living,  they  will  show  themselves  capable 
of  running  their  household  finances  on  an  economic 
financial  basis.  That  they  have  not  done  so  sooner, 
is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  woman's  work  in  the 
home  has  not  been  looked  upon  as  an  economic  factor 
in  the  work  of  the  world.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
the  last  census  enumerators  were  instructed  to  WTite 
"occupation  none"  opposite  the  names  of  women  who 
were  keeping  house  for  their  owti  families  alone. 
Yet  the  dictionary  says  ' '  An  occupation  is  that  which 


results 


292      ABOUT  THE  HOUSE  MONEY 

is  the  principal  business  of  one's  life;  that  which 
engages  one's  time  and  attention." 

It  is  safe  to  predict  that  this  obsession  will  never 
again  affect  the  census  bureau,  and  that  housekeep- 
ing will  hereafter  figure  in  census  reports  as  a  money 
making  occupation  upon  whose  results  a  money  value 
can  be  placed.  A  full  realization  that  it  is  so,  would 
bring  self  respect  to  many  a  discouraged,  unappre- 
ciated housewife,  who  may  find  new  life  in  the 
thought  that  she  is  a  productive  agent  in  the  home 
as  truly  as  her  husband  is  in  his  shop.  She  can 
easily  compute  her  money  value  to  the  family,  by 
learning  the  local  wage  value  in  the  different  sorts 
of  industries  in  which  she  engages.  Domestic  serv- 
ice, sewing,  nursing,  teaching,  executive  management, 
all  have  a  specific  value  in  each  community,  and  all 
can  be  secured  for  wages. 

With  a  ridiculous  sentimentality,  we  have  refused 
to  recognize  this  service  of  women  as  an  economic 
department  of  domestic  economy,  and  have  insisted 
that  it  must  be  estimated  in  terms  of  love.  A  more 
reasonable  judgment  would  be  that  for  the  sake  of 
love,  woman  gives  up  the  opportunity  to  receive  the 
wage  of  any  one  of  these  services,  and  performs  them 
all  in  return  for  the  love  of  the  man  who  divides 
his  income  for  the  sake  of  a  family. 


XXXIV 

MAKING  HOME  ATTRACTIVE  TO  YOUNG 

PEOPLE 

MRS.  W.  F.  WYMAN 

ijOME  and  Mother,"  have  been  called  the 
sweetest  words  in  the  English  language,  and 
one  has  not  to  think  twice  to  understand 
why  they  are  so  closely  linked  together. 
Either  word  calls  to  mind  the  other,  and  as  woman 
always  has  been,  so  she  always  must  be,  above  all 
other  demands  upon  her,  a  home-maker.  But  in 
these  days,  when  the  horizon  of  woman's  life  is  so 
rapidly  widening  and  changing,  when  new  avenues 
of  usefulness  are  being  constantly  opened  up  to  her, 
is  there  not  some  danger  of  her  losing  her  ideals  in 
the  w^ork  God  has  so  unquestionably  given  into  her 
hands  as  wife  and  mother? 

So  much  has  been  said  and  WTitten  on  home-life     Routine 
and  its  far-reaching  influence  that  the  subject  seems     great  problem 
almost  threadbare,  and  yet  there  is  always  danger 
lest  in  the  inevitable  drudgery  and  routine  work  we 
lose  sight  of  the  grand  problem,  the  solution  of  which 
is  being  worked  day  by  day  in  our  hands — the  devel- 
opment of  the  child.   Phillips  Brooks  once  said,  "He 
who  helps  a  child,  helps  humanity."     He  also  added 
that  it  is  a  help  which  in  character  and  distinctness      ~-\    f 
differs  from  any  other  help  given  to  human  creatures 
at  any  other  stage  of  human  life. 

The  most  of  this  help  that  is  of  such  vital  import- 
ance to  childhood  must  come  from  the  parents  and 
the  home,  though  the  public  schools  are  good  aid  in 

293 


294 


MAKING  HOME  ATTRACTIVE 


What  the 
home  must 
do  for  the 
chUd 


The  children's 
friends 


their  way,  especially  in  the  case  of  boys,  teaching  them 
by  hard  rubs  how  to  get  along  with  all  the  classes 
of  people  they  will  meet  later  in  life,  and  if  home 
influence  has  been  what  it  should  be,  we  are  often 
astonished  at  the  keen,  discriminating  selection  of 
associates  our  children  make.  A  little  girl  who  once 
lived  with  me  and  had  permission  to  invite  a  school 
friend  to  come  home  with  her  to  dine  every  Friday, 
surprised  me  by  the  sound  reasons  she  had  for  liking 
and  disliking  her  mates,  and  in  almost  every  case  I 
found  her  judgment  correct. 

But  it  is  in  the  home  life  that  the  child  finds  the 
truest  and  best  aid,  and  on  the  mother  falls  the 
sacred  responsibility  of  the  physical  and  mental 
training  of  her  children,  and  just  as  surely  as  she 
must  provide  wholesome  food  to  nourish  the  body, 
just  so  surely  must  she  see  to  it,  that  the  will  be 
trained,  the  emotions  awakened,  the  moral  sense 
established,  good  habits  formed,  good  manner  bred, 
and  the  whole  of  each  child  harmoniously  developed. 
Very  seldom  can  any  of  this  stupendous  undertaking 
be  delegated  to  another,  and  can  it  ever  be  done  suc- 
cessfully except  at  the  cost  of  self-sacrifice?  Loving 
and  continuous  self-sacrifice,  which  is  after  all  the 
crowning  glory  of  motherhood,  and  in  the  end  is  not 
without  great  compensations. 

There  are  two  ways  of  aiding  the  development 
'of  the  child,  and  it  is  just  here  that  my  real  topic 
,  begins,  for  the  right  way  makes  home  attractive,  not 
only  to  the  happy  children  within  it,  but  to  all  their 
friends.  It  is  not  at  all  strange  or  unaccountable 
that  so  many  children  want  to  spend  more  time  in 
other  homes  than  their  own.  Most  children  are 
highly  susceptible  to  the  home  atmosphere,  and  of 
course  they  love  best  to  congregate  where  they  per- 


MAKING  HOME  ATTRACTIVE  295 

ceive  that  the  home  is  for  the  children,  and  in  it  a 
great  mother  heart,  that  feels  an  active  interest  in 
other  children  as  well  as  her  own.  I  am  afraid  it  is 
true  that  some  of  these  little  ones  receive  more  real 
help  and  comfort  in  the  homes  of  their  friends  than 
in  their  own.  Mrs.  Mosher  says  in  her  little  book  on 
''Child  Culture";  "In  many  parents'  eyes  the  child 
is  a  puppet,  which  is  not  to  move  unless  they  pull 
the  string.  He  has  hands  which  are  to  touch  noth- 
ing, eyes  which  may  see,  but  must  not  desire,  feet 
that  may  not  go,  and  silent  tongue.  Instead  of 
bringing  up  a  child  for  its  own  sake  it  exists  for  the 
parents'  sakes."  We  have  all  seen  the  children  of 
such  a  home,  and  we  cannot  wonder,  that  out  of  it  a 
boy  is  glad  to  go  to  even  the  most  severe  military 
training  or  to  college  without  any  predisposition  to 
study,  and  the  girl  of  the  family  looks  back  upon  her 
childhood  with  feelings  of  deepest  gratitude  that  it 

.  can  never  return.     The  parents  of  such  children  live 

I  their  own  selfish,  independent  lives  without  the  least 
recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  young  lives  given  to 
their  care.  They  may  "make  clean  the  outside  of 
the  cup   and  platter"  by  spending  money  lavishly 

'  upon  the  clothing  of  their  children,  and  upon  their 
household  furnishings  and  decorations.  They  may 
even  have  a  very  orderly  and  systematic  household, 
but  one  entirely  lacking  in  the  home  atmosphere  and 
the  spirit  that  can  make  the  humblest  cottage  attrac- 
tive. It  is  most  unpleasant  to  contemplate  such 
homes  where  selfish  lives  are  lived  and  children  mis- 
understood and  deprived  of  their  unalienable  rights 
to  be  children  before  they  are  men.  The  principles 
underlying  the  kindergarten  (but  just  as  applicable 
at  home)   are  happily  bringing  a  great  influence  to 

I  bear  on  the  training  of  the  child's  natural  instincts, 


296 


MAKING  HOME  ATTRACTIVE 


Unattractive 
parents  and 
homes 


Daughter's 
room 


/and  the  practice  of  them  is  no  less  valuable  to  the 
mother  than  the  teacher. 

To  make  home  attractive  to  children  then,  there 
must  be  first  and  foremost,  an  unselfish,  devoted 
mother,  ready  to  lay  down  her  very  life  upon  the 
altar  of  childhood.  She  does  not  give  her  children 
the  lofty  association  from  a  high  pedestal  against 

I  which  condescension  they  will  naturally  rebel,  but 
she  breaks  down  all  such  barriers  and  becomes  a 
sister  and  companion  as  well  as  mother.  She  is  an 
inspiration  not  only  to  her  own  boys  and  girls  but 
to  their  friends  and  their  friend's  friends.  She  does 
not  indulge  much  in  lofty  theorizing,  but  enters  with 

iher  whole  heart  into  the  lives  of  her  children  and 
understands  all  the  cravings  of  their  natures,  and 
believing  the  instinct  for  diversion  is  as  natural  as 
any  other  instinct,   she  gives   the  proper  value   to 

/  play,  and  provides  plenty  of  home  amusements  for 
them.  To  such  a  home  girls  are  attracted  first  by 
the  ready  sympathy  and  aid  they  are  sure  to  receive 
in  carrying  out  plans  that  are  dear  to  them,  as  well 
as  sweet  companionship,  and  second,  by  the  careful 
consideration  that  has  been  used  in  making  the  home 
subservient  to  the  end  of  living.  In  such  a  home,  if 
there  is  money,  the  mother  will  look  to  it  that  all 
the  accessories  and  settings  are  such  as  will  instruct 
the  artistic  taste  and  poetic  understanding  of  her 
children. 

In  this  home  the  daughter's    room    will    be    so 

/dainty,  restful  and  elevated  that  the  girl  will  never 
be  careless  in  her  habits  or  have  any  but  the  highest 
standards  of  external  life.  And  if  there  is  but  little 
money,  providing  the  same  mother  love  is  there,  some 
way  will  be  found  to  give  the  daughter's  room  the 

'  same  air  of  bright,  cheerful  cleanliness  and  dainti- 


room 


MAKING    HOME   ATTRACTIVE  297 

ness.  A  pretty  dressing  table  can  be  constructed  out 
of  an  old  stand  or  box  covered  and  frilled  with 
muslin,  the  same  inexpensive  material  that  makes  the 
pretty  ruffled  window  curtains.  A  corner  seat  can 
as  easily  be  made  and  covered  with  chintz,  and  boxes 
for  shirt-waists,  shoes  and  other  things  can  be 
arranged  with  small  expense  and  much  pains.  There 
may  be  hanging  book-shelves,  and  the  penny  prints, 
copies  of  the  old  masters,  and  if  the  coloring  is  kept 
strictly  harmonious,  the  room  will  be  a  joy  to  its 
occupant  and  all  her  friends. 

A  boy's  room,  his  own  sanctum,  needs  the  same  son^a 
careful  thought.  Some  provision  must  be  made  for 
the  treasures  dear  to  his  heart,  and  if  there  is  no 
cabinet  or  set  of  drawers  for  his  great  variety  of 
specimens,  there  must  at  least  be  a  shelf  for  them. 
His  favorite  books  and  pictures  must  have  a  fitting 
#  place,  and  above  everything  else  it  must  be  a  room 
/  where  he  can  invite  his  boy  friends.     Happy  is  that 

"/  home  where  there  is  no  frown  on  the  mother's  face, 
as  the  boy  and  his  friends  tramp  up  and  down  stairs. 
All  the  boys  in  the  neighborhood  know  that  in  such 
a  home  on  a  rainy  day,  they  can  have  a  circus,  or 
games  in  the  attic,  and  when  the  mother  fears  the 
chandelier  may  fall,  she  simply  serves  them  sand- 
wiches and  glasses  of  milk  and  has  a  pleasant  tale 
to  tell  them. 
.  It  requires  more  patience  and  self-denial  to  make 

^  an  attractive  home  for  boys  than  it  does  for  girls, 
since  there  are  more  outside  attractions  for  them; 
but  when  the  mother  gets  in  return  the  boy's  entire 
confidence  and  feels  sure  she  knows  his  heart,  she 
counts  the  sacrifice  small.  The  self-denial  is  not  so 
onesided  as  it  would  seem.  Children  are  quick  to 
follow  example  and  do  not  often  fail  to  appreciate 


298  ENCOURAGING  A  LOVE  OF  HOME 

what  is  done  for  them.  Out  of  the  generous  im- 
pulses of  their  hearts  they  will  try  to  do  many  things 
that  they  discover  are  pleasant  for  their  parents. 
Another  compensation  for  making  oneself  a  sister 
to  her  children,  and  her  home  a  sort  of  young  people's 
club,  is  that  the  mother  really  finds  herself  enjoying 
what  they  enjoy,  and  by  keeping  in  touch  with  youth 
she  feels  young. 

Best  of  all  is  the  happiness  that  comes  to  the 
mother's  heart,  when  she  sends  out  from  the  home, 
to  take  their  places  in  the  world,  manly  men  and 
womanly  women,  who  bless  her  for  all  she  has  done 
for  them.  With  what  gladness  comes  the  thought, 
that  at  whatever  cost,  she  became  one  with  her  chil- 
\  dren  and  in  forgetting  self,  gave  them  all  the  joy  and 
happiness  of  an  unhampered  childhood.  Then  to  her 
comes  rest  and  peace  and  she  can  say  with  Browning, 

"Grow  old  along  with  me, 
The  best  is  yet  to  be. 

The  last  of  life,  for  which  the  first  was  made— 
Our  times  are  in  His  hand 
Who  saith  a  whole  I  planned ; 
Youth  shares  but  half ;  Trust  God,  see  all  nor  be 
afraid." 

ENCOURAGING  A  LOVE  OF  HOME 

HANNAH    K.    SCHOFF 
President  National   Congress  of  Mothers 

HE  encouragement  of  a  love  of  home  is  greatly 
needed,  for  the  outside  attractions  have  be- 
come so  numerous  that  many  who  have  seen 
the  effects  realize  that  the  time  has  come  to 
develop  and  strengthen  home  ties  rather  than  weaken 
and  disrupt  them,  as  is  the  case  when  children  look 
for  all  their  social  life  to  outside  sources. 


ENCOURAGING  A  LOVE  OF  HOME  299 

A  woman  who  had  for  many  years  been  active 
in  girls'  clubs  said  that  she  found  they  had  a  ten- 
dency to  make  the  girls  dissatisfied  to  be  at  home, 
and  to  share  with  their  mothers  the  home  duties 
which  are  the  best  preparation  girls  can  have  for 
home  life  as  wives  and  mothers.  They  craved  ex- 
citement every  evening  beyond  that  the  homes  could 
supply,  and  in  the  making  of  friends  who  were  un- 
known to  their  parents  were  frequently  subjected  to 
grave  dangers.  The  same  result  has  been  observed 
by  thoughtful  men  and  women  in  connection  with 
work  designed  to  be  of  benefit  but  which  nightly 
induces  both  parents  and  children  to  seek  pleasures 
outside  of  the  home  circle.  If  these  centers  were 
open  but  one  evening  a  week  this  objection  probably 
would  not  apply. 

There  are  many  schemes  for  civic  and  social 
betterment,  which,  on  the  surface,  seem  valuable. 
The  only  way  to  judge  of  their  efficiency  is  to  study 
the  results  and  carefully  weigh  them. 

No  scheme  for  social  betterment  that  ignores  the 
home  as  the  natural  center  of  attraction  can  be  of 
permanent  value.  Parents  need  to  realize  that  part 
of  their  duty  as  home-makers  is  to  make  the  home 
attractive  to  the  children,  not  only  in  childhood,  but 
as  they  grow  into  young  manhood  and  womanhood. 
Immersed  in  business  and  often  laden  with  many 
cares,  fathers  and  mothers  fail  in  this  important  part 
of  their  duty.  However  small  the  house  may  be,  this 
is  possible,  but  in  many  cases  the  parents  must  be 
shown  how  to  interest  their  children  and  imbue  them 
with  a  love  of  home. 

A  woman's  club  could  do  much  to  promote  the 
sentiment  of  responsibility  and  show  how  to  do  it  by 
a  series  of  meetings,  in  different  sections  of  the  city, 
to  which  parents  would  be  invited. 


300      WHY  CHILDREN  SEEK  THE  STREETS 
WHY  CHILDREN  GO  OUT  ON  THE  STREETS 

LOUISE  DE  KOVEN  BOWEN 
President  Chicago  Juvenile  Probation  Association 

I  HE  majority  of  the  children  go  out  on  the 
streets  because  their  homes  are  unattractive. 
The  boy  goes  because  he  craves  action  and 
wants  excitement,  the  girl  because  there  is 
no  room  in  which  she  can  see  her  company.  She 
is  ashamed  to  ask  her  boy  friends  to  a  room  which  is 
too  often  filled  with  the  family  washing. 

This  drying  of  clothes  in  the  living  room  is  un- 
fortunately a  necessity,  and  it  has  occurred  to  me 
that  if  public  laundries  could  be  established  in  our 
cities  where  women  could  take  their  clothes  and 
wash  and  dry  them,  taking  them  home  to  be  ironed, 
it  would  obviate  this  unpleasant  drying  of  clothes  at 
home. 

Such  a  laundry  could  be  undertaken  by  a  woman 's 
club.  It  would,  of  course,  have  to  be  advertised 
among  the  people  who  are  in  need  of  it  and  be  made 
popular  in  some  way.  A  small  charge  might  be 
made  for  its  use,  and  in  many  ways  it  would  tend 
toward  making  the  home  more  attractive. 

Of  course  the  whole  question  of  the  house  goes 
back  to  the  erecting  of  such  buildings  as  are  fit  for 
the  housing  of  human  beings,  and  I  believe  that  a 
woman's  club  could  do  no  better  work  than  try 
to  secure  legislation  which  would  provide  for  the 
erection  of  such  tenements  as  have  recently  been 
built  in  Germany.  Here  the  buildings  are  a  pleasure 
to  the  eye;  there  are  courts  where  the  children  may 
play;  balconies  where  the  tenants  may  walk,  and  all 
the  light  and  air  and  sunshine  which  are  the  work- 


WHY  CHILDREN  SEEK  THE  STREETS       301 

ingman's  right  and  which  are  so  necessary  for  the 
well  being  of  his  family. 

In  such  tenements  the  boy  has  space  for  play 
and  opportunity  for  exercise,  and  the  girl  takes  a 
pride  in  her  home  and  is  eager  to  ask  her  friends  to 
share  its  hospitality. 

HOUSES  SHOULD  BE  MADE  FOR  CHILDREN 
AS  WELL  AS  FOR  GROWNUPS 

CAROLINE  BARTLETT  CRANE 
Founder   Kalamazoo   Civic    League;    Civic   Expert 

NE  essential  with  most  children  is  a  ready  wel- 
come for  their  friends  into  a  home — or  some 
part  of  a  home — adapted  to  the  taste  and 
needs  of  children.  Our  homes  are  made  for 
grownups.  They  are  made  before  the  children  come, 
and  they  seem  to  be  made  over  but  slightly  and 
grudgingly  when  the  little  ones  arrive.  The  child 
does  not  find  his  normal  habitat  amid  the  staid  and 
easily  upset  surroundings  and  people  in  the  living 
room,  and  children's  playrooms  are  few  and  far 
between;  and  barns — ^how  I  remember  our  delightful 
barn — are  distinctly  on  the  wane.  One  might  as 
safely  romp  around  the  sacred  contents  of  a  garage  as 
in  the  purlieus  of  a  grand  piano. 

I  have  in  mind  a  singularly  charming  home  where 
the  two  little  boys  live  all  over  the  house,  and  there 
is  not  a  jerkable  tablespread  or  a  joggly  vase  or 
piece  of  bric-a-brac  anywhere  within  reach.  The 
dog  brings  in  some  little  dirt,  but  his  antics  with  the 
children  bring  in  also,  much  hilarity.  These  boys 
have  in  friends  they  want;  not  "suitable  com- 
panions,"  prescribed,    like    medicine,   because    sup- 

Vol.  1 — 20 


302  HOUSES  FOR  CHILDREN 

posed  to  be  "good  for  tliem."  The  parents  rightly 
think  that  nothing  very  much  amiss  will  happen 
without  their  knowledge  so  long  as  the  children  are 
at  home.  A  carpenter  bench  and  turn-pole  in  a 
light,  dry  basement,  popcorn  facilities  in  the  kitchen, 
and  stories  of  adventure  read  aloud  to  a  lot  of  little 
human  quadrupeds  around  the  family  fireplace — 
these  charm  even  the  dread  leader  of  "the  gang"  into 
a  nice,  peaceable  child. 
A  place  to  "^^^  thing  that  quickest  drives  a  boy  away  to  the 

let  ofif  ,^i(j   and   "the   gang"   is   lack  of   really   congenial 

spirits  and  of  freedom  to  "let  off  steam."  Oh,  to 
think  of  the  countless  hosts  of  fathers  and  mothers 
slotting  in  comfortable  chairs  on  the  safety  valves 
and  bewailing  the  waywardness  of  youth ! 

The  parents  in  this  family   I  speak  of  literally 
"live   with    the    children,"    as    Froebel    exhorted; 
I  play  with  them,  talk  with  them  about  the  great  and 
/  little  things  of  the  da}^  and  all  the  moral  and  spiritual 
I  questions  which  children  invariably  bring  to   intel- 
ligent and  sympathetic  parents.     There  is  no  prob- 
lem about  keeping  these  children  at  home.    We  want 
them  to  see  some  of    the    good    shows    and    street 
pageants,  do  we  not?     Of  course  a  part  of  our  work 
must  be  to  make  the  street  an  extension  of  the  home, 
and  a  relatively  safe  place  for  the  boys  and  girls. 

[The  last  three  divisions  of  this  chapter  are  from 
The  Survey.] 


XXXV 

HOW   THE   FARMER'S   WIFE    MAY   LIVE    A 

FULL  LIFE 

HARRIET  M.  SHEPARD 

Ex- President  of  the  Missouri  State  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs 

I  HE  right  kind  of  a  farmer's  wife,  on  the  right 
kind  of  a  farm,  may  have  almost  unlimited 
facilities  for  ''trying  out"  some  of  the  great 
experiments  or  problems  of  the  day.  She 
may  cause  to  be  cultivated,  in  her  own  preserve, 
such  a  variety  of  products  as  to  make  her  kitchen 
garden  an  epitome  of  horticultural  possibilities,  and 
from  the  abundance  of  foodstuffs  at  her  command 
she  may  evolve  the  scientific  diet  that  will  keep  her 
family  well  nourished.  In  the  planning  of  household 
work  she  may  establish  such  a  division  of  labor  among 
her  associates  and  dependents  as  shall  create  efficiency 
and  skill  among  the  workers.  She  may  study  sani- 
tary problems  and  find  in  the  increased  comfort  and 
health  of  her  family  a  rich  reward  for  all  thought  and 
time  expended.  She  may  teach  her  children  thrift  in 
business  and  desirable  traits  of  character  in  having 
their  own  possessions,  living  or  otherwise,  to  care 
for.  She  can  promote  ingenuity  and  design  in  al- 
lowing the  girls  to  experiment  in  dressmaking  and 
millinery  as  well  as  in  cooking,  or  in  encouraging 
the  boys  in  such  original  schemes  as  that  of  making 
the  nearby  spring  provide  the  power  for  some  of 
the  more  arduous  tasks  of  the  home.  She  may  find 
constant  joy  in  the  pure  air  and  peace  of  the  coun- 
try, where  she  may  live  close  to  nature  in  the  songs 

303 


304  THE   FARMER'S  WIFE 

of  the  birds  and  the  verdure  of  the  forests,  while 
rearing  her  children  in  an  environment  secure  from 
the  temptations  and  pitfalls  of  city  life.  She  may 
have  the  satisfaction  of  inspiring  her  sons  to  reach 
out  for  the  scientific  training  of  the  agricultural 
school,  from  which  they  will  return  to  put  new  life 
into  the  old  farm  by  improved  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion. She  may  teach  the  daughters  that  home-making 
is  a  profession  ranking  higher  than  any  other  for 
women,  and  by  the  application  of  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  home  economics  prepare  them  for  the  time 
when,  in  homes  of  their  own,  they  may  work  out  their 
own  ideas  of  right  living.  She  may  encourage  the 
particular  bent  of  each  child,  whether  it  be  for 
music,  art,  poetry,  horticulture,  or  any  of  the  many 
occupations  and  diversions  that  attract  the  young, 
until  the  home  becomes  the  center  of  interest  for 
every  one  of  the  family.  She  may  help  establish  the 
woman's  department  of  the  Farmer's  Institute,  and 
so  open  new  avenues  of  interest  and  companionship 
among  those  of  like  occupations.  She  can  make  time 
in  which  t  become  interested  in  the  neighborhood 
school;  and  in  cultivating  the  acquaintance  of 
"teacher,"  she  may  establish  a  real  partnership  with 
the  one  who,  next  to  herself,  is,  in  all  probability, 
destined  to  have  the  strongest  moulding  influence  on 
her  children's  characters.  She  may  find  increasing 
comfort  in  the  adoption  of  mechanical  appliances 
for  lightening  household  labor,  and  in  planning  co- 
operation among  neighbors  for  mutual  benefit.  She 
may  have  the  telephone,  rural  free  delivery,  and 
even  the  automobile,  which,  with  the  aid  of  good 
roads,  can  so  annihilate  time  and  space  as  to  give  to 
the  rural  dweller  many  of  the  advantages  of  the 
nearby  towns.  She  may  have  books  from  our  state 


THE  FARMER'S  WIFE  305 

library  commission;  or  even  find  time  to  organize  a 
woman's  club,  and  so  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  planning, 
with  other  public-spirited  women,  altruistic  move- 
ments for  the  improvement  of  ma,ay  features  of 
country  life. 

Surely  no  woman  need  find  the  country  devoid 
of  opportunity.  Can  you  think  of  any  greater  service 
to  the  State  than  the  development  of  its  rural  home 
life,  with  all  the  accessories  that  elevate  it  to  a  plane 
of  dignity  and  influence?  Can  there  be  any  more 
hopeful  attraction  to  the  cramped  and  poverty- 
stricken  toiler  of  the  town  than  the  change  to  an  en- 
vironment where  material  prosperity  may  be  com- 
mensurate with  the  effort  and  judgment  put  forth, 
or  where  the  success  of  the  individual  contributes 
more  conspicuously  to  the  sum  total  of  the  general 
welfare  ? 

It  is  emigration  away  from  her  own  untoward 
conditions  that  the  country  needs — an  exodus  from 
the  crowded  places  into  the  free  life  of  the  open, 
where  sturdy  manhood  and  womanhood  may  grow  up 
to  replenish  the  human  force  worn  out  by  too  in- 
tensive living,  and  where  hosts  of  courageous,  re- 
sourceful, broad-minded  men  and  women,  working 
for  imperishable  results,  become  the  patriots  whose 
every-day  lives  make  for  the  upbuilding  of  a  greater 
State. 


XXXVI 


The  best 
way  to  fulfill 
our    social 
obligations 


LIFE'S  LARGE  RELATIONSHIPS* 

GRAHAM  TAYLOR 

HERE  is  no  better  way  to  study  and  fulfill 
our  social  obligations  and  opportunities  than 
to  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  function  and 
sphere  of  the  family  relationship,  of  neigh- 
borship, of  industrial  conditions  and  relations, 
of  the  humanitarian  responsibility  and  service  incum- 
bent upon  any  group  of  people  constituting  a  town- 
ship, a  village,  a  county,  a  city,  a  state,  a  nation. 
To  find  out  just  what  is  to  be  done  and  just  how  to 
do  it  in  each  one  of  these  spheres  of  life  and  work, 
of  their  rights  and  duties,  there  is  no  better  way 
than  to  group  the  actual  or  possible  agencies  that  are, 
or  may  be,  available  to  help  each  one  of  us,  or  everj^ 
group  of  us,  to  fill  our  parts  in  and  through  the  home, 
as  parents  and  children,  as  husbands  and  wives,  as 
brothers  and  sisters;  in  and  through  the  neighbor- 
hood, as  neighbors  to  those  neighboring  us;  in  and 
through  our  business  partnerships  and  our  industrial 
fellowships,  as  those  who  are  partners  with  our  Father 
God  and  are  parts  of  His  very  Providence  whereby 
He  feeds  and  clothes,  shelters,  nourishes  all  his  chil- 
dren, and  "opens  His  hand  to  supply  the  wants  of 
every  living  thing";  in  and  through  the  town  and 
city,  as  citizens  charged  with  the  tremendous  re- 
sponsibilities of  building  and  maintaining  the  frame- 
work within  which  every  one  in  each  community  is 
bom,  grows  up,  lives  and  works,  meets  death  and 
destiny ;  in  and  through  the  church,  as  members  com- 

*Froin    "The   Religion   of   Human   Relationships."      Copyrighted, 


1912. 


306 


LIFE'S  LARGE  RELATIONSHIPS 


307 


missioned  to  reveal  and  apply  the  ideals  of  religion 
to  ourselves  and  to  all  others  in  every  one  of  these 
life-spheres  in  which  we  live,  or  which  is  within 
the  reach  of  our  individual  and  collective  influence 
throughout  all  the  world. 

"What  then  is  the  function  of  the  family  relation- 
ship as  expressed  and  fulfilled  through  the  institu- 
tion of  marriage  and  the  home?  Is  it  not  the  pro- 
pagation of  the  race,  the  nurture  of  child  life,  the 
culture  of  the  whole  life,  the  rest  and  recuperation, 
character-building  and  satisfaction,  of  every  human 
being?  Is  it  not  to  set  the  type  and  inspire  the  spirit 
which  should  characterize  and  dominate  human  be- 
ings in  all  their  other  relationships — neighborly,  in- 
dustrial, civic,  and  ecclesiastical?  If  this  ideal  of 
what  a  family  is  for  is  borne  in  upon  us,  will 
it  impel  us  to  seek  and  create  every  agency  that 
will  help  us  and  others  to  make  the  most  of  and 
do  the  best  by  our  own  homes  and  others  ?  Will  not 
our  effort  thus  to  group  around  the  family  those 
agencies  which  are  most  tributary  to  it,  or  to  which 
it  may  be  most  tributary,  help  us  the  better  to  define, 
organize,  relate,  and  utilize  these  agencies? 

If  we  realized  that  most  of  us  depend  upon  neigh- 
borship for  our  human  fellowships,  our  recreations, 
philanthropy,  and  social  progress,  would  it  not  mean 
more  to  us  to  be  neighbors  and  to  have  neighbors, 
and  to  rescue  and  restore,  fulfill  and  enjoy  those 
neighborly  relationships  which  are  well-nigh  lost  in 
the  readjustments  and  transitions  of  modern  life? 

If  "business"  and  the  "office  force"  and  the 
"shop's  crew,"  the  labor  union  and  the  employers' 
association  should  come  to  be  recognized  as  the  means 
and  agencies  through  which  the  very  Providence  of 
God  is  providing  for  the  preservation,  sustenance, 
the   material  comfort,   convenience,   equipment,   and 


rnnction  of 

family 

relationships 


Neighborship 


Industrial 
relationships 


308 


LIFE'S  LARGE  RELATIONSHIPS 


Citizenship 


Relationships 
of  religion 


progress  of  life,  will  it  not  most  surely  and  swiftly- 
free  each  one  of  us,  and  also  the  world,  of  that  sordid- 
ness  and  selfishness,  that  fratricidal  strife  and  work- 
a-day  atheism  which  lay  the  heaviest  curse  upon  the 
human  race  ?  Is  there  any  other  way  of  turning  busi- 
ness into  brotherhood  and  human  brotherhood  into 
business?  Is  there  a  steadier,  more  equitable,  more 
effective  way  of  making  "life  more  than  meat  and 
the  body  than  raiment,"  of  making  the  physical  and 
material  serve  the  spiritual  and  not  dominate  and 
destroy  it,  of  making  the  way  of  earning  a  living  also 
"the  way  of  life"  and  not  the  way  to  moral  destruc- 
tion and  spiritual  death? 

If  politics  were  invested  with  no  less  a  function 
than  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  the  repres- 
sion of  vice  and  crime,  the  promotion  of  virtue,  the 
realization  of  the  highest  ideals  of  each  individual 
life  and  of  every  family  and  of  each  community  and 
of  the  whole  social  order,  would  we  talk  of  "dirty 
politics"?  Would  we  not  consider  citizenship  as 
serious  as  religion  and  a  part  of  it,  would  not  a  city 
and  town  be  like  a  sanctuary,  and  a  ward  and  a  pre- 
cinct be  a  holy  place,  and  the  voting  booth  and  ballot 
box  a  holy  of  holies? 

If  all  life  were  invested  with  such  sanctity  and 
every  sphere  of  it  were  sacred,  religion  would  be  no 
less  reverenced  and  its  sanctuaries  would  be  all  the 
more  places  of  privilege  and  power.  For  then  the 
supreme  function  of  religion  would  be  recognized  as 
essential  to  all  life.  And  the  unique  and  pre-eminent 
prerogatives  of  the  church  would  identify  it  with  all 
that  is  both  divine  and  human.  For  to  the  church 
the  world  would  look  for  the  revelation  of  the  divine 
ideal  of  life,  individual  and  collective;  for  the  in- 
spiration to  aspire  to  it ;  and  for  the  power  to  realize 
it  in  personal  experience  and  all  social  relationships. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FOUNDING  THE  HOME   309 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Family  Home Charles  Francis  Osborne 

(Every  chapter  in  this  little  book  should  be  read  by 
those  who  are  selecting  a  location  and  a  building  for 
a  home.     See  two  chapters  in  this  volume.) 

The  Healthful  Farm  House Helen  Dodd 

(A  brief  book  covering  all  the  essentials  of  sanitation 
iu  a  farm  home.) 

Farmers'  Bulletins  Obtained  Free  on  Application  to 
THE  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington_, 
D.  C. 

(Numbers  126,  185,  270  and  463  cover  construction  of 
various  farm  buildings  and  improvement  of  gi'ounds.) 

Farm  Water  Supply Cornell  Reading  Courses 

Elementary  Principles  of  Economics.  . .  .Ely  and  Wicker 
(A  text  book  simple  enough  for  family  use.) 

The  Woman  Who  Spends Bertha  June  Richardson 

(A  little  ethical  guide  for  housemothers.) 

Housekeeping  Notes Mabel  Hyde  Kittredge 

(An  inexpensive  but  helpful  book  for  inexperienced 
housekeepers,  giving  lists  and  costs  of  various  furni- 
ture and  utensils,  and  covering  briefly  all  the  processes 
of  cooking  and  cleaning.) 

The  Home  Made  Kindergarten Nora  A.  Smith 

(A  small  but  extremely  helpful  book  full  of  practical 
suggestions.) 

Home,  School  and  Vacation Annie  Winsor  Allen 

(Gives  in  brief  what  parents  may  reasonably  expect  the 
child  to  acquire  at  different  ages,  with  ease  and  safety, 
and  the  gist  of  the  true  meaning  and  method  of 
education.) 


310  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  FOUNDING  THE  HOME 

Education  for  Efficiency Eugene  Davenport 

(Helpful  in  determining  ends  and  methods.) 

Every  Day  Problems  in  Teaching M.  V.  O'Shea 

(Wliile  addressed  to  teachers,  it  is  free  from  school 
technicalities,  and  full  of  helpful  suggestion  to  parents 
on  every  day  problems  of  both  home  and  school.) 

Child  "Welfare  Magazine.  .  .National  Congress  of  Mothers 

Test  Book  for  Mothers Sophie  L.  Dickenson 


University  of  California 

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